


The Avengers and the Flying Boat

by Stijn1boy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, Book 5: The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus), Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, I Haven't Read The Trials of Apollo, I try to upload once a week, Post-The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus), Pre-The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus), Sokovia (Marvel), The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 31,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24090949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stijn1boy/pseuds/Stijn1boy
Summary: During the Battle of Sokovia, the Avengers get unexpected help from a group of kids. Who are they? And how do they have a flying boat? More tags will be added as the story progresses.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 96
Kudos: 239





	1. The City is Flying

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t own any of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this, the first part of this chapter is taken almost word for word from Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Wanda was starting to panic while trying to crawl out of sight of the Ultron sentries, "How could I let this happen?"

"Hey, hey, you okay?"

"This is all our fault."

"Hey, look at me. It's your fault, it's everyone's fault, who cares. Are you up for this? Are you? Look I need to know, cause the city is flying." Clint Barton replied while trying to calm her down. "Okay, look the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense."

Clint was interrupted from his little speech when a sentry shot through a wall. He stood up while aiming his bow trough one of the newly created holes in the wall and took it out.

"But I'm going back out there because it's my job. Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit. Doesn't matter what you did, or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here you're good, I'll send your brother to come find you, but if you step out that door, you are an Avenger.

"Alright, good chat." He finished while standing up and walking to the door. When he got there, he tapped a button on one of his leg braces and took out nine arrows, before putting them on his bow, while saying "Yeah, the city is flying."

When Clint kicked the door open, he immediately started firing at as many robots as he could, before he jumped behind cover while firing an explosive arrow at an Ultron sentry.

He got up and stayed crouched against the corner wall with an "Ow!"

More sentries started arriving while one started charging his gun and aiming it at Clint when the door opened and Wanda stepped out, her eyes were red and she was using her telekinesis to rip the robots apart or throw them into each other. Clint was able to use this distraction to fire two arrows into the heads of two sentries that were walking towards them. He let the rest of the team

He told the rest of the team that they were clear over his comms, to which he got the response _"We are not clear! We are very not clear!"_

"Alright, coming to you"

Clint and Wanda started walking to where they knew the captain was, when Wanda's brother came by, picked her up, and ran off, shouting: "Keep up old man."

Clint was about to respond to the now long gone Quicksilver when he heard something above him. He immediately turned around, his bow aimed and ready to shoot when he got a good look at what made the noise. He had to blink a few times to know for sure his eyes weren't betraying him before he lowered his bow in confusion. "What the- guys are you seeing this?"

* * *

_A few minutes earlier on the Argo II_

Percy was on watch for monsters and thinking about what happened in Tartarus. A week ago he and his girlfriend Annabeth had escaped with help from their friend Bob, a Titan Percy had thrown into the river Lethe a few years prior, which wiped his memories. In the end, Bob and the Giant Damasen had sacrificed themselves so they could use the Doors of Death to escape.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw something flying in the distance. It seemed far too big to be a monster though. "Leo, have you got any binoculars I can use in that belt of yours?"

"Give me a second," Leo replied. "Do you see something interesting?"

"Yeah, but I can't identify it," Percy said when Leo stood next to him. They were closer now, but he still couldn't make out any details. He used the spyglass to see the object in greater detail.

"Oh my gods," he rubbed at both his eyes and the front of the spyglass before looking through it a second time. "Leo do you know of any flying cities in mythology? Did your dad get bored recently?"

"I'm sure he did but I don't think he's ever built something like that." The son of Hephaestus answered Percy.

"Well either someone moved Olympus again, or someone got a different city to float.

"They seem to be in some trouble, bit's keep falling off and it doesn't look like it was made to fly. Here take a look, maybe you'll understand it better." Percy said while handing the binoculars to Leo.

"Holy Hephaestus, Those are engines keeping it together and in the air. But it's a normal city, why would you make a city float?" He asked himself before turning to the bronze dragon head at the front of the ship. "Hey Festus, can you bring us closer, I want to get a better look."

"Leo, we're on a bit of a tight schedule," Percy reminded him. "We have to be at Olympus in a week."

"I know, I know, but flying cities. Besides, you said it yourself, they may need help. They seem to be in some trouble," he dismissed Percy's statement. "I'll make sure to keep an eye on the cool floating city. Can you go warn the others that we may be headed towards a fight?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have had this idea in my head for a while now and I wanted to share it with people. Just to clarify some things: Sokovia is in eastern Europe, so I placed it somewhere between Greece and Italy. I also don't know what I'm going to do with Thor yet, but I will probably ignore the Magnus Chase series. I don't know if this has been done before but I couldn't find anything and it seemed like a pretty good opportunity to take canon events to add these groups together.
> 
> I don't know how long this will be, but I will update when I get the chance, which will probably be about once a week.
> 
> If you read my other story, I'm sorry that it has taken me so long, I might start writing for it again sometimes, but now I really can't bring myself to do so.
> 
> Leave a review, it really really helps in both motivating me and in giving me ideas.  
> Until next time
> 
> [I took a look through what I already had to help me with the newer chapters, and updated some parts to hopefully improve the quality with the things I learned since I started this. I mainly edited the dialogue in the second part for this one.]


	2. Now There Are Two Flying Ships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own any of this.

By the time the others arrived, the city was almost at cloud height. The Argo II had gotten close enough to the floating city to start making out details. They could see people running around, seemingly fleeing from two fighting groups.

"Are those _robots_?" Piper asked, a hint of surprise in her voice.

"They are?" Her question immediately brought Leo's attention to one of the two fighting groups. "That's so cool!"

"Great Leo," Jason told the Latino boy. "Too bad they seem to be attacking people."

"Wait, what?"

"Why do you think those people are running away from them?" Annabeth reminded him, "Never mind the people that are fighting back. I doubt it's just a friendly brawl."

"Should we help them?" Frank asked before Leo could respond. "I know we have our hands full with Gaea, but they look like they could use some assistance."

"I guess we could help them out," Annabeth answered him. "Leo, do you see any places where we can land?"

"Festus, you got anything?" The dragon head answered with a few clicks and creaks. "Thanks, buddy, can you get us there?" Leo turned back to the rest of the group, "Festus is going to set us down on the other side of the city. According to his scanners, the fighting seems to be worse over there."

"Do we have any plans?" Jason asked Annabeth. As a daughter of Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, she was a natural strategist. This meant that the group mostly looked to her when a plan was needed.

"We should split up and help where we're needed the most. Remember we're dealing with mortals here so the mist _should_ help us to keep hidden. It has been weakening since 2012 though, and what's happening now will probably weaken it even more, so _please_ , do try to keep a low profile.

"We'll divide into three groups, Percy stays with me, Frank stays with Hazel, and Jason, Leo, and Piper will be the last group. It doesn't seem like there is any way for the mortals to get off this rock, so our priority is protecting them."

Leo looked like he wanted to ask a question but she cut him off. "No Leo, you can't keep the robots."

* * *

" _Guys are you seeing this?!"_

Steve had just finished destroying another Ultron Sentry with some help from Natasha when Barton's voice came over the comms.

"What is it, Barton?"

" _A bronze boat just flew over my head! I think it's headed your way"_

Steve looked in the direction that he knew Barton was in. His eyes widened when he could indeed see what looked like a bronze ship flying towards them. It even had sails.

"Stark do you recognize this thing?"

Stark out from underneath the city. " _Never seen something like this before. F.R.I.D.A.Y. what are we looking at?_

" _The ship seems to be modeled after an ancient Greek trireme,"_ the AI answered. _"But my scans don't show any thrusters or other systems that would allow it to remain in the air. I am also unable to identify the material of the hull, and large parts of the ship."_

" _File that away for later. Any vital signs on board?"_ Tony asked while flying behind the ship.

" _There are seven people on the ship."_ There was a short pause as F.R.I.D.A.Y. performed some other scans, " _Scans suggest they are all between 15 and 18 years old."_

" _You got that Cap?"_

"Thanks, Tony. I think they're gonna land close to us. I'll make contact and ask them what they're doing here," Steve said, before returning to their original problem. "Have you got anything for getting this rock down?"

" _Nothing great, "Stark replied. "Maybe a way to blow up the city. That will keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear."_

Steve immediately dismissed that idea. "I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

" _Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're gonna_ have _to make a choice."_

"Cap, these people are going nowhere." Black Widow joined the conversation, "If Stark finds a way to blow this rock…"

"-Not till everyone's safe." Steve interrupted her.

"Everyone up here versus _everyone_ down there? There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve insisted.

"I didn't say we should leave." Steve turned to look at her. "There's worse ways to go." She looked over the edge of the city which was now just above the clouds.

"Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

" _Glad you like the view, Romanoff."_ Fury came in over the comms. _"It's about to get better."_

* * *

The Argo II had almost reached the site where Festus was going to land when something rose out of the clouds.

"What is _that_?!" A confused Percy asked, pointing towards it.

"Is that one of those flying aircraft carriers that crashed into the Potomac?" Piper tried to answer his question.

"When did that happen?"

"Just after you went missing," Annabeth replied, before explaining. "Captain America and the Black Widow took down three Helicarriers after they found out S.H.I.E.L.D. had been taken over by HYDRA. S.H.I.E.L.D. was taken down shortly afterward, but I guess they still kept these things."

"I hope they got something to help people get out of here," Hazel said, still amazed by the technological advancements that had been made since her death.

"Alright, guys, we're almost there," Leo broke off any reply to Hazel's statement. "Hold on to something. This thing wasn't made to land on the ground."

* * *

After the group landed, Percy and Annabeth went to the edge of the city where the aerial transports that came out of the Helicarrier had landed. On their way, they destroyed a few of the robots.

"Glad these things are made of metal," Percy said while slicing one of the robots in half. "This would be really annoying if we couldn't use our weapons."

"Sure, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth replied. "Let's just keep moving towards those transports"

When they arrived at the transports, Percy could finally take a better look at the people that were fighting the robots.

"Wait a second- Is that _Captain America_?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank everyone that followed, favorited, or reviewed. I will also answer any reviewers that I can't respond to directly in these sections.
> 
> I would like to thank ThunderSphinx for reminding me of the next part of these notes, which I actually wanted to put in the last chapter's notes.
> 
> According to the Riordan wiki, The House of Hades ends on July 18, 2010, with Blood of Olympus ending on August 1 of the same year. For this story, I shifted those dates around to 2015 (and then the battle to July instead of May, but you get the idea) I have also shifted The Winter Soldier to take place at the end of 2014 instead of the beginning.
> 
> Thanks again for reminding me to put this in here. As for anyone else who read something like this or saw any other errors, constructive feedback is always welcome.
> 
> I made Leo land the Argo II because the city itself keeps rising, which means that the Argo II would have to keep rising at the same rate if they didn't land.
> 
> I upload when I have the next chapter, so sometimes it will be very quick like this, and sometimes it will be a lot longer. I can write more now due to COVID-19, but I don't know how long it will stay that way.
> 
> I will try to make the next few parts a little longer (I always like longer chapters), but I felt this was a good point to end the chapter.
> 
> Please review, and until next time!


	3. Many Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this.

"Hill, can you tell me anything about that flying ship the team was talking about?"

Nick Fury was trying to identify the ship and the group of apparent teenagers according to F.R.I.D.A.Y.

"Not yet sir. We have no intel about any vessel like the one Stark and Barton described," Maria Hill replied. "Since F.R.I.D.A.Y. couldn't identify certain elements of the ship, we assume it is of alien origin or has been assembled using alien materials."

"Update me the moment you have something."

* * *

Natasha Romanoff had just helped another group of civilians onto a lifeboat when she saw a boy and a girl in their late teens fighting off a small group of sentries. She was about to help them when the boy cut two of the robots in half, and the girl destroyed the last one.

"Hey Cap, have you found those kids that came from that boat yet."

"Not yet." He replied while escorting another group, "Do you see them?"

"I think so," Natasha said. "They seem to be friendlies. The boy and girl, orange t-shirts. The boy seems to be armed with a sword of some kind."

She took another look at the pair, just in time to see the girl take down a sentry that was taking aim behind the boy while he was busy fending off another robot. "So is the girl. They're skilled with them too."

"I see them. I'll talk to them when I'm done with this group."

"Sure thing, Cap."

* * *

Leo was having a lot of fun fighting off these robots.

The group of five had walked towards the center of the city until Hazel and Frank had split off at some point to help some civilians that were trapped inside a building.

Right now he was throwing around fireballs, melting the robots left and right.

"I thought Annabeth said to keep a low profile," Piper said from Leo's left while dodging a shot from one of the robot's arm cannons. She then proceeded to stab the robot through the chest, shutting it down.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Leo asked, throwing another fireball that melted the face of one of the robots. "Tinker them to death? It's not like I have any other weapons. There are only so many ways you can use a ball-peen hammer, and none of them are very effective against metal murderbots."

While he said this, he grabbed one of his Archimedes Spheres and activated it, before throwing it at a group of five robots. When it landed at their feet, the ball exploded in a burst of multi-colored flames, taking out the entire group.

Piper didn't reply. Leo did have a point after all, and while she'd like to blend in, these robots were quite tough to destroy. If Leo needed his pyrokinesis to destroy them, she wasn't going to stop him.

* * *

A little further down the street, Jason was destroying some robots with his gladius. He could make out some other people that were fighting in what probably used to be some sort of church. Once he cut off the head of the last robot, he ran to the church, hoping to help whoever was inside.

Once he entered what was left of the building, he was surprised to see a man wearing armor and a cape being choked by a robot. This seemed to be a different type of robot though. It was bigger and it looked a lot tougher than the robots that he'd fought outside.

Before he could take a better look at the robot, however, it was slammed out of the building by another caped individual. On closer inspection, Jason realized that this was another robot, though the fact that it was protecting people made Jason classify it as an ally. Its body was mostly covered by a bluish-gray suit, which connected to the golden cape he wore. Its skin was mostly dark red, though its head also featured some gray components. There was a bright yellow gem that shone in the robot's forehead. What surprised Jason the most were the very human features that the robot possessed. The eyes especially were remarkably lifelike.

Jason turned to the armored man and was about to ask him if he was alright when he recognized him.

Most demigods can be a bit ignorant about news in the mortal world, but even the people that never left either of the camps had heard about the Battle of New York. The Avengers had earned the respect of a lot of demigods with the way they defended Manhattan from an alien invasion.

He didn't know a lot about the group, but he knew Leo idolized Tony Stark. The billionaire playboy turned superhero had impressed a lot of Hephaestus' and Vulcan's children with his Iron Man suit and Arc Reactor.

The person that stood before him had caused a lot of questions in Camp Jupiter when the identities of some of the people on the team were first revealed. They were surprised to learn that there were other pantheons, even though this man seemed to be less powerful than the Roman gods.

Jason had just finished this train of thought when Thor noticed him.

"Are you alright boy?"

* * *

Hazel and Frank were helping a group of trapped mortals. Frank was using his bow to fend off the incoming robots, while Hazel was using her geokinesis to find a safe way out of the building.

Eventually, Hazel found a good place to safely create a tunnel out of the building. When the last of the mortals was out of the building, they escorted them to a larger group of people who were waiting for the next transport off the flying city.

They were about to start looking for more people in need of help when they heard a voice behind them

"And people keep telling me bows are outdated."

Frank turned around, looking for the man that had spoken to them.

"You've even got swords with you."

* * *

While he was dismantling the attacking robots, Percy was trying to process what this was going to mean for the group of demigods. Captain America was here, which meant that the rest of the Avengers were probably nearby.

It was to be expected, of course. This seemed to be the kind of threat the Avengers would get involved with. One the one hand, it was pretty cool to be part of a fight with Earth's so-called Mightiest Heroes - a title that had raised a lot of eyebrows in Camp Half-blood. but it did raise a lot of questions about what they would do if they learned about their group.

Percy was so deep in his thoughts that he barely even realized Steve Rogers was walking towards him.

"Hey, kid, hold up!" Percy's eyes widened when he realized the Captain was walking towards him. He debated just running away, but ultimately decided against it.

Even with his demigod abilities, he was sure the Avenger would be able to keep up with him without any trouble.

"I was told you are one of the people that were on that ship." The Captain began. "I'd like to thank you for your help. We were in a bit of a tight spot before you showed up.

"We're glad we could help," Percy replied. He saw no reason for denying their ship. Clearly, The Mist had failed to hide them from the mortal group, and he knew there was no way he could convince the man that he hadn't seen their ship fly.

"Is there something else we can do? It seems like most people are in the flying transport things."

The Captain was about to answer when he got a message through his earpiece. When the conversation had passed he turned back to Percy.

"How good are you with that sword?"

"Good enough to fight an army of robots."

"Follow me then."

* * *

_A little earlier inside the church_

While he was waiting for the boy to answer, Thor took some time to look at him again, spinning Mjölnir to destroy a couple of incoming sentries while he did.

The first thing he noticed was that the boy was holding a sword. On Asgard, and most of the other Realms, this would have been a regular sight, but he knew that the usage of swords was quite rare in Midgard, especially one made out of gold as this one seemed to be.

The boy was quite tall for a Midgardian. He had short blond hair, blue eyes, and a small scar on his lip. He had an athletic build, with a small tattoo on his right arm. Upon closer inspection, Thor saw that the tattoo depicted an eagle, with the letters SPQR written below.

"I'm fine." Thor looked up again when the boy answered.

"That's good, do you need any help getting to the lifeboats?" he asked, though he could already guess the answer the boy was going to give.

"No thanks, I just thought you were in trouble, but it seems like you were able to handle it."

"Yes, I'm quite alright," Thor answered, chuckling a little at the thought of this boy coming to rescue _him_ from Ultron.

"You look like you know how to use a sword," Thor said while throwing Mjölnir to an incoming sentry, "I thought people had stopped using them in Midgard."

When he turned around again, he saw that the two more robots advancing on the core behind the boy. He threw Mjölnir once more, but before he could summon it and destroy the other one, the boy had already stabbed through it, shutting it down.

"Most people have," the boy answered him.

Before Thor could ask him more, they were interrupted when a boy and girl walked into the building. Thor's eyebrows rose when he saw that the boy held a ball of fire in both of his hands. He could also see some smoke coming from the boy's hair and ears.

"Jason are you alright," the girl asked, before stopping when she saw Thor. "Oh…"

"I'm fine, Piper," the boy, apparently named Jason, answered her, finally taking his eyes off the god of thunder. His eyes widening when he looked at the other boy.

"Leo!"

"What?!" the other boy asked.

Jason raised his hands, gesturing for him to put the fire out.

"Oh right, sorry," Leo answered him before the fireballs evaporated, though the smoke remained.

Thor was about to ask the three who they were when he heard Stark in his earpiece, in the distance he could see Ultron assembling a large group of robots.

" _Thor, I've got a plan!"_

"We're out of time. They're coming for the core."

Questions would have to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might have noticed I had some difficulty getting some of the characters right. I have a feeling he's that at least the captain, Percy, and Jason are a little out of character, but I don't know how I could do them any better (please give me some feedback about this, I really want to do them better).
> 
> I've also never really written any fight scene before, so if you could give me some tips for the next chapter, it would be really appreciated.
> 
> I put one reference in this chapter (it might be really obvious, I don't know). Let me know if you spotted it in the reviews.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and please leave a review.


	4. The Good, The Bad, And The Pajamas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this.

Percy, Captain America, and Annabeth arrived in the church around the same time as Frank and Hazel, who seemed to have come here with Hawkeye and a woman that she didn’t know. Most of the other Avengers were in the church by now, including two other people that she hadn’t seen before, one of which seemed to appear and disappear at great speed, leaving only a blue trail in his wake.

After checking if the rest of The Seven were okay, Annabeth started taking out the incoming robots while looking around the ruined building.

There was a metal device seemed to have broken through the floor. She assumed the Avengers were defending it, which was confirmed when she heard Iron Man say that “if Ultron gets a hand on the Core, we lose.”

While she was looking around, Annabeth used her drakon bone sword to decapitate, stab, or simply destroy the robots around her.

By the time the Hulk arrived, the robots in the church were almost wiped out, Percy taking out the last one with a swing of his blade.

He had just done this when Annabeth saw a different looking robot, presumably this Ultron that Tony Stark was talking about, floated down.

“Is that the best you can do?” Thor shouted at it, causing Annabeth to release a groan of frustration. She had learned long ago that tempting the fates was a bad idea. Especially since they were most likely going to react if a demigod was involved. Especially if Percy was nearby.

It was therefore not surprising to her when Ultron raised ‘his’ hand, which was followed by at least a hundred ‘normal’ robots appearing, causing the Captain to sigh while saying, “You had to ask.”

“This is the best I can do,” Ultron answered in a deep, mechanical voice while raising both his arms. “This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?”

“Well like the old man said,” Iron Man answered the robot, looking over at Captain America before he finished. “Together.”

The moment he had said this, the mechanical army attacked.

* * *

“Sir, we’ve been able to identify one of the people who were on the ship.” Maria Hill addresses Nick Fury.

“What have you found?” He answered her, turning his eye away from the screens in front of him.

“We’ve been able to identify one of the people as Perseus Jackson. A seventeen-year-old boy from Manhattan,” Hill stated, looking at the screen in front of her. “He was kicked out of seven different schools for various reasons, including firing a cannon at a school bus, dropping his class in a shark pool, and setting fire to the school gym.”

“Why do we have a file on him?” Fury asked her, before turning to one of his screens to check on the ongoing battle.

“He went missing in 2010 after he and his mom were in a car crash. He was a suspect for a time, after the mother’s husband, a man named Gabe Ugliano, accused Jackson of being a troubled kid with violent tendencies.” Hill took some time to open a different file before continuing. “He was also suspected of causing the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. He was eventually found in L.A. after he was in a firefight on the Santa Monica beach. Police reports state that he and two of his friends were abducted by a man in New York, after which the still-unidentified man took them across the country. Jackson eventually stole a gun from his captor, which started the firefight.”

Fury thought about this for a moment. “Do we have any evidence that contradicts this?”

“Nothing sir, we do, however, have sources that claim that Jackson fell or jumped off the Gateway Arch. If this is true, it suggests he is enhanced in some way.” Hill answered him. “We also have some footage that links him to the events at the Empire State Building last year.”

“Is there anything else?” Fury asked.

“We have some reports that state that he has been reported missing since December of last year,” Hill answered, “We also have footage that suggests that Annabeth Chase, one of the other kidnapped children, and Piper McLean, the daughter of Tristan McLean are also part of this group.” She finished, before turning away from her screens to look at him.

“Start a file on Jackson, I want a full report on him as soon as possible. Do the same for Chase and any other members of this group that you are able to identify.

* * *

Percy was destroying any robot that got in range of his sword. The robots were coming from all directions, climbing over walls, through the windows, or even flying through the roof.

The group of Avengers and demigods stood in a circle around the Core, or whatever Iron Man had called it, defending it from the incoming threat. He could see Leo shooting fireballs from his left, while the new girl was waving her hands around, which seemed to create some form of energy that was ripping the robots in half.

The friendly robot was flying above them, literally going through the robots to destroy them, while the fast guy in the pajamas was just running around and punching everything in arms reach.

Percy cut an incoming robot in half, before raising his sword to block a strike form another. There may be a lot of them, but luckily, these things weren’t that durable. He dodged a blow from his left, before using his sword to cut down an enemy to his right. after this, he darted forward to slice another robot in half.

While he was doing this, The Hulk was being swarmed by a group of at least six different robots. Before he could go over to help, the green giant had already thrown them off, before going on to find the next enemy to smash.

During this, the friendly robot got attacked by the boss robot, who grabbed him in mid-air, before using some form of energy to throw him into a wall. Before the boss robot could get to the friendly robot, however, the friendly robot shot a yellow energy beam out of his forehead, which caused his opponent to be thrown back out of the ruined building.

Before the boss robot could get up, Thor and Iron Man joined the friendly robot with thunder and energy blasts respectively. This proved to be too much, as when these beams stopped their assault on the robot, he was little more than a half molten skeleton. Percy was surprised he still functioned, but it got up almost immediately.

“You know, with the benefit of hindsight-“ it started, but before it could finish its sentence, the Hulk caused it to fly into the air with a single strike.

When the main robot was gone, the remaining enemies started to flee, the Hulk running after them.

“They’ll try to leave the city,” Thor said.

“We can’t let them, not even one.” Iron Man answered while the friendly robot flew away, “Rhodey.”

Percy didn’t know who Rhodey was, but he assumed this person would stop the other robots from leaving the city.

After this exchange was over, Captain America started talking to the group.

“We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin,” he began, “You guys get to the boats. I’ll sweep for stragglers. Be right behind you.”

“What about the core?” Hawkeye asked while looking at the metal contraption in the middle of the building.

“I’ll protect it.” The new girl answered him, before looking over. “It’s my job,” she finished, which earned her a nod from the archer.

“Nat,” he said, looking at the Black Widow. He nodded his head towards one of the exits of the building, “This way.”

When they were gone, the Captain started walking over to the group of demigods.

“Thank you for what you did today,” he began, looking at them all, his eyes lingering on Leo, who’s hands were still smoking.

“It wasn’t a problem,” Annabeth answered for the group.

“I’d still like to thank you anyway,” Steve responded to her, “I think I should tell you that we don’t have any plan for getting this rock down in one piece, so you should probably get back to your ship.”

“We’ll do that, thanks,” Annabeth said, before turning towards our own group, “Jason, could you help the Captain with his search?” she asked him.

“Sure,” Jason responded to her, before turning towards the Avenger, who looked like he was going to argue, “Don’t worry, I’m good with heights.”

With that, the conversation was over, although the Captain did request that they didn’t leave immediately after Jason got back on board. Before leaving the building with a final nod to the girl with the jacket.

* * *

“I know what I need to do,” Clint said while driving through the rubble, “The dining room!” he continued, “If I knock out that east wall, it’ll make a nice workspace for Laura, huh? Put up some baffling, she can’t hear the kids running around, what do you think?” he finished while driving around a truck that stood parked at the edge of the floating city.

“You guys always eat in the kitchen anyway,” Natasha answered him.

“No one eats in a dining room,” Clint responded while parking the car next to one of the lifeboats.

They turned to their left when they heard the Hulk roar in the distance.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Clint said while turning back to Natasha. Who responded that he should “get his ass on a boat,” before getting out of the car and walking towards the roars.

After getting out of the car, Clint walked onto the lifeboat, turning back around to have one last look for stragglers after he heard a woman call for her brother, saying that they were in the market.

The lifeboat was about to take off when he saw a young boy in what was left of a market stand. Sighing, he stepped off the transport and ran towards him.

 _“Thor, I’m gonna need you back at the church,”_ Stark came in over his earpiece. _“You know, this works, we maybe don’t walk away.”_

 _“Maybe not,”_ came Thor’s response.

“Come on. Time to go,” Clint said to the boy when he arrived at the ruined stand, kneeling down to help him out of the space he was hidden.

He turned around with the boy in his arm when he heard gunfire in the distance. He saw a trail of bullets coming his way, turning around in the vain hope to shield the boy with his own body.

That’s when the ground around him exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I did better this chapter than the last one, I hope you agree. Sorry for leaving ait at a sort of cliffhanger, but I think you should be able to figure out what happened.
> 
> I do have quite an important question for you guys. I’m thinking about continuing this after AOU, having some of the Avengers help on the final part of the quest, and possibly having the demigods appear in later movies in the MCU. Would you guys like this, or should I just finish this story, and leave it at that? If I do continue, would you like it to be a sequel, or do you just want me to continue this one?
> 
> If you want me to stop this story, I don’t mind, I like writing this (though I get a bit distracted by other things sometimes), but I already have an idea for a different Avengers/Percy Jackson story, and a few others as well. If you do want me to continue, I still might do them as well, but updates for both would be less frequent than they are now (I actually do have to study).
> 
> I like Quicksilver’s outfit, by the way, I just thought it was something Percy would think.
> 
> Until next time.


	5. Many Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this.

_“Come on. Time to go,” Clint said to the boy when he arrived at the ruined stand, kneeling down to help him out of the space he was hidden._

_He turned around with the boy in his arm when he heard gunfire in the distance. He saw a trail of bullets coming his way, turning around in the vain hope to shield the boy with his own body._

_That’s when the ground around him exploded._

* * *

Pietro had just arrived at one of the lifeboats when he heard the sound of gunfire to his left.

He could see the Avengers’ Quinjet flying over the transports, firing the minigun on its bottom while doing so.

It had already passed Thor and Captain America, but they seemed to be unharmed. Unfortunately, one of the men guarding the ship wasn’t so lucky. When he followed the direction of the plane, he could see Hawkeye standing there, holding a child in his arms.

The archer seemed to resign himself to his fate, turning around to shield the boy. Pietro ran to the pair as fast as he could, hoping to save them both.

Time seemed to slow as he tried to get to the archer as quickly as he could, knowing this would cost him his own life. He had just reached the archer when the ground started shaking around them, before water burst out of it, seemingly creating a shield of water separating the group from the incoming bullets, giving Pietro the chance to reach his destination and get them out of the way.

When the Quinjet had passed them, Pietro and Clint looked around, trying to find the source of the water. That’s when they saw one of the children from the ship slowly lowering his arms, causing the water to do the same.

* * *

When Percy lowered his arms, he could see that the Avengers that were present were all looking at him. Shocked by the powers he just displayed.

He had chosen not to use his hydrokinesis up to this point to try and blend in better, hoping to keep the gods hidden from the Avengers. That wouldn’t stop him, however, from trying to save people. When he saw what was about to happen, he had used the water that remained in the pipes to shield the Avengers from harm.

He hadn’t thought about the consequences this could have though. They already knew about Leo, and he had just shown them his control over water. Luckily, the group of superheroes chose to focus on their task, most likely deciding to ask him about it later.

He saw Thor flying away in the direction of the church, while the Captain ran to Hawkeye and the fast guy to check on them.

When he saw this, Percy walked back to the ship, signaling for Leo to take off when they were on board.

* * *

Thor was deep in thought while he was flying to the church. Something about this group of children was familiar to him. Some old memories that were awakened by the boy’s display with the water, but still vague enough that he couldn’t place them.

He had also felt a connection to one of the other boys, the one that he first saw in the church, and he felt the same thing with the other children to a lesser extent. He was sure he hadn’t met any of these children before, but he recognized something about them. Something that felt ancient, even to him.

That thought brought back a memory from a little under a year ago. His father had invited him to a meeting with the Greek pantheon.

He knew that unlike most other pantheons, these gods had mortal children. The reason for the meeting was the end of a war the Olympians had just gone through. Apparently, the Olympians had a habit of neglecting their offspring, which caused one of these children to turn to the parents of the gods, the Titans.

In the end, when he saw what he was about to cause, this demigod had sacrificed himself to stop the Titan king Kronos from destroying the Olympians.

This had led the Olympians to reestablish contact with the other pantheons, hoping that they could work together in the future, to stop anything like this from happening again.

Thor also remembered that the defense of Olympus was led by one of these demigods. A child of one of the so-called Big Three; Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. According to the Olympians, the children of these gods were incredibly powerful, to the point that the Second World War was, in essence, a conflict between the children of these Olympians. This, combined with a great prophecy about the destruction of Olympus, caused the brothers to swear an oath to no longer sire any children with mortals.

Apparently, both Zeus and Poseidon broke this oath, with the child that Poseidon fathered being the leader of the demigods that defended Olympus.

Poseidon was the god of the sea, among other things. He also recalled Stark’s new program stating that the ship that the group arrived in was an ancient Greek Trireme.

He had almost reached the church when the city started falling.

* * *

Leo had just shaken his Wii controller to take off when the city started falling.

The group of demigods all ran to the side of the ship to look at it, wanting to see it’s destruction with their own eyes. They all knew it would be disastrous if the city were to reach the ground at this speed.

Leo had just reached the railing when he saw blue flames burning through the rock at multiple places, accelerating its descend even more. The city was falling fast enough now to start smoking, and he thought he could see the flames below it that were caused by the friction.

That’s when bolts of lightning shot out from the center of the city, presumably created by Thor, before the city exploded in a ball of light when it reached a height of around 8,000 feet above the surface, causing cheers to erupt from the group.

It took about fifteen minutes before all the Avengers, minus the Hulk, who had flown off in the Quinjet, met up with the group. Leo had flown the ship towards the Helicarrier, before landing on it, allowing the two ships to descend at the same speed.

After the city had exploded, Iron Man had flown Thor back up to the flying aircraft carrier. The god had apparently lost consciousness after the pair had destroyed the city. They had arrived just after the good robot, had brought the new girl, to the Helicarrier.

When everyone had arrived, they were brought inside the flying ship, to a room that looked like it was some sort of control center. One of the walls was made of glass, through which they could see the ship was now descending through the clouds. There also seemed to be a hole in the wall through which one of the robots had flown in, this robot was now lying with a piece of metal jammed into its head.

Inside the room were multiple rows of computers, most of them were occupied by people wearing a blue S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, there was also a table that the robot had apparently crashed into since it was completely destroyed. In the middle of the room, a man wearing a black trenchcoat was looking at a group of screens in front of him.

When the group entered, the man turned around to look at them, immediately focusing on the group of demigods.

“You have an eyepatch?!” Leo shouted, proving once again that his mouth was faster than his brain could keep up with, “That’s so cool!”

Tony Stark let out a snort, clearly amused by the boy’s somewhat blunt nature. The man with the eyepatch didn’t react to Leo’s question outside of looking in his direction.

“Let’s take this somewhere a little more private,” He said, walking off without waiting for an answer.

* * *

By the time Tony and the rest of the Avengers, together with the group from the ship, arrived in the meeting room, Fury and Hill were sitting at the long table.

“Take a seat,” Fury said, once again more interested in the kids than the team, which, to be fair, was understandable.

“We’d like to ask you a couple of questions,” Fury started, looking between the blond girl and the green-eyed boy, identifying them as the leaders of the group.

“What kind of questions,” The blonde girl asked.

Fury was about to answer when Thor interrupted, immediately getting the attention of everyone in the room. “You’re demigods, aren’t you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter, but I think this is the best that it’s gonna get.
> 
> This will be quite a long author’s note, but if you have question’s about any part of the chapter, like the water shield, Loki and Thor, or why the city started falling, I have an answer to that in the notes below. I also want to be clear that when I asked if you wanted me to stop this story, I didn’t mean I wouldn’t update it anymore, I just meant that I wouldn’t continue the story after AOU.
> 
> I won’t do the recap of the last chapter every time, but this time, I thought it would help since it left at somewhat of a cliffhanger.
> 
> For those of you that are confused about how water shielded Quicksilver and Hawkeye from bullets, water is pretty good at stopping bullets. According to MythBusters Episode 34: Bulletproof Water, a supersonic bullet (up to .50 caliber), which the Quinjet fires (I looked it up, it fires .308 caliber bullets) a bullet will disintegrate in about 3 feet of water (90 cm). I think Percy should be more than able to create a wall of water that is 3 ft. thick. Don’t know if everyone already knew that, but if you didn’t, that’s how it worked.
> 
> For people that want to know why I didn’t follow canon and let Quicksilver sacrifice himself, first off, this isn’t canon, so there’s that. Secondly, if I’m going to continue this after the battle of Sokovia, that would be a little difficult to do believably if Wanda had just lost her brother a few days before.
> 
> I know Loki replaced Odin in late 2013, with this taking place in the middle of 2015, but since Thor didn’t know about Loki until late 2017, I assume that Loki tried to at least pretend he was Odin when Thor was around, which probably includes things like inviting him to a meeting with the Olympians. After all, even if Thor has turned down the throne, Odin isn’t immortal. Thor would have to become king someday, whether he likes it or not.
> 
> I have always thought that in the Percy Jackson universe, The Olympians rule the world, while the Egyptians keep it running. The Norse gods don’t really have a role in this, but they are also considerably more modern than either of the other pantheons, that’s why I thought they would have these ‘meetings’ from time to time.
> 
> Wanda didn’t die, but Since the scene with the city falling is really awesome in my opinion, I decided to still have it in there. Just imagine that she got overwhelmed shortly before Thor arrived, which is actually quite likely, seeing as in the shot where she ‘senses’ Pietro’s death, there are quite a large number of robots on screen. She’s powerful, but even she has her limits.
> 
> I tried to be as accurate as possible for the final height before the city explodes, combining the fact that it had just broken through the bottom layer of clouds, which should be around 8,500 feet, with a freefall calculator (and making an educated guess about the initial speed before it’s destruction), which said it would be around 3,500m, or 11.500 feet above the surface at its initial height. In the end, I took the lower end of these two, since I don’t actually know the initial speed of the city.
> 
> Until next time,


	6. The Avengers Get A History Lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this.

Everyone turned to Thor after he said this.

“You mean your people have kids with humans? I thought you said your people didn’t come to Earth for centuries before New Mexico.” Tony was the first to speak up, “I mean, they don’t look like five-year-olds to me.”

“I’m seventeen thank you very much,” the kid that had apparently controlled water interrupted him.

“Shut up, Seaweed Brain,” the blonde girl sitting next to him said. They hadn’t done any introductions yet.

“They aren’t Asgardian,” Thor answered Tony’s question, looking at the group in front of him.

“You guys aren’t the only gods out there are you?” Natasha voiced the thought most people in the room seemed to have.

“No, we aren’t,” Thor responded, “But you haven’t answered my question yet. Are you demigods?”

* * *

Annabeth wasn’t sure how she should answer. On one hand, the gods were supposed to stay hidden from mortals. These people already knew Thor, though. And he had basically just confirmed the existence of other pantheons.

“We are,” she confirmed, deciding that they probably wouldn’t believe any denials anyway, so it was better to just get it over with.

Thor nodded at this, “Olympian I assume,” he asked them, receiving nods in confirmation.

“Wait, so you’re telling me that the Greek gods are real and that every so often, they just fall in love with humans and have a kid with them?” Stark interrupted them.

“Well, yes, that sums it up pretty nicely,” Percy answered him, along with several nods from Thor and the other demigods.

“Okay, I can work with that,” Stark said, returning to his usual nonchalant self, though Annabeth could see he had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask.

“So one of your parents is a god, while the other is human?” Steve Rogers asked, sounding a little unsure. “Guess there really is more than one god,” he finished, causing Natasha to smile a little.

“Let’s get back on track,” the man with the eyepatch caught everyone’s attention.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve done introductions yet,” Annabeth responded. ”I’m Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare.”

“I thought Athena was a virgin goddess?” the Black Widow asked, to which Annabeth nodded.

“She is, but that’s kind of a long story which I’d rather tell some other time,” Annabeth answered her, before looking at Percy, gesturing for him to go next.”

“Oh guess I’m next. I’m Percy, son of Poseidon, who is the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses.”

“One of these things is not like the others,” Hawkeye said, causing a few chuckles.

“Yeah, apparently my dad created horses out of seafoam or something,” Percy responded.

“But that’s why you can control water?” One of the new members asked, the one with the white hair.

“Yeah, it also allows me to breathe underwater and talk to fish, and a couple of other things,” Percy answered him.

“Thank you for that by the way,” Hawkeye said. “It wouldn’t have ended well if you hadn’t acted.”

“It’s no problem.”

“But you’re basically a real-life version of Aquaman?” Stark asked.

“Please don’t start calling me Aquaman,” Percy replied.

“Well, I’m Leo, my dad’s Hephaestus, the god of forges, fire, blacksmiths, craftsmen, technology, and probably a load of other things,” Leo said, fiddling with his toolbelt while he did.

“Sounds like a nice guy,” Stark said before jokingly asking “Can I meet him?”

“Well, I’d love to introduce you,” Leo started, “but I’ve only seen him like once, and that was during a dream where he was talking to me over the radio.” When he saw the looks the mortals were giving him, he added that ‘demigod dreams are weird.’

After this, they continued with Jason. “I’m Jason, son of Jupiter, god of the sky,” He said, confusing some of the Avengers.

“I thought Jupiter was Roman,” Captain America asked, voicing their thoughts.

“The Olympian gods basically have two personalities, separating their Greek and Roman halves,” Annabeth explained to him. “This means that while Jason here is a son of Jupiter, his sister is a child of Zeus.”

“So they’re like Gollum?” Clint asked, which was followed by the sound of thunder.

“They’re also huge stalkers,” Percy said, followed by more thunder. “Oh come on, you know it’s true,” he yelled at the ceiling.

* * *

Director Fury was the last one to introduce himself to the demigods.

“Well now that everyone knows each other,” He said, looking at the demigods, “We’d like to know some more about you, specifically why you are here on a flying ship. We’d also like to ask Mr. Jackson some questions about some events that he was involved in over the last couple of years.”

“Which of those do you want to do first,” Jackson answered him. Seemingly unfazed by his question.

“Well since you asked, let’s just start with you.” Fury replied, “What happened at the Empire State Building last year?”

That question seemed to kill the good mood the boy had. “We were defending it.”

“From who?” Fury asked. He had expected an answer along those lines. The reports said that Jackson had been in a battle between two armies.

“The Titans,” Jackson replied. This answer did surprise the director. He wasn’t that well versed in Greek mythology, but he seemed to recall that the Olympians had already defeated their predecessors long ago. Luckily, the boy continued.

“The gods have been known to neglectful of their mortal children,” Jackson began. “A few years back, one demigod turned against the gods. He made a deal with Kronos, hoping that the Titans would treat the demigods better than the gods did.” He continued. “Eventually, this resulted in Kronos being brought back from Tartarus, the darkest place in the underworld.”

“And why did they attack the Empire State Building?” Stark asked, interrupting the boy.

The boy turned to Chase, seemingly asking her if he should tell them or not, to which she shrugged in reply. “Because Olympus is on the six hundredth floor,” he answered, leaving the man speechless for the first time since Fury knew him.

* * *

After this, the questions went smoothly, with only minimal stops for added explanation.

“So why are you all the way out here,” Cap asked after they had explained some more about the gods and answered the questions about what had happened in the last couple of years.

“We’re trying to prevent the Giants from waking up Gaea and destroying the world,” Frank answered him. Whatever he was expecting, this wasn’t it.

“You’re trying to stop the Earth from waking up?” he responded. Receiving nods from the seven demigods.

He looked around the team, seeing that they were all thinking the same thing. “How can we help?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d like to start this A.N. by saying that there might be a short break between this and the next chapter. Don’t worry, it won’t be more than a week, but I have a retake coming up and I’d like to focus on that for now. The next chapter will probably be up around Friday, depending on how it goes. This is also the reason that this chapter is a little shorter than the last few have been.
> 
> I skipped past most of the demigods because you already know who they are. I chose the ones I did do because I thought it would actually add to the story, and not just the word count.
> 
> I don’t know if I had Fury right, I tried to have him be quite reasonable, unlike quite a lot of fanfics where he is unreasonably distrusting and just plain hostile. I always felt that Fury just a guy with trust issues, especially in the later movies, which is what I tried to display here.
> 
> I had a (somewhat long) conversation with one of my reviewers asking me if I would do a Wanda/Percy story. I told him that I don’t have anything planned for now, and that I would most likely stick to canon relationships. I would like to ask all of you, however, about one non-canon relationship that I personally really enjoy. I’ve always thought it was a bit of a waste to pair Nat with Bruce in AOU. That’s not to say that it couldn’t possibly have worked, but I always thought she and Steve had a much better relationship in CA:TWS. I know the Russo’s purposefully avoided making her the obligatory love interest, and I applaud that. I do think that if they were gonna pair her up with someone, why not do it with Steve? 
> 
> If I do this, it won’t be anytime soon, since AOU just happened, and I still want to follow that part of the movie, but would you like to see Natasha get together with Steve in this story? If you don’t that’s alright, but as I said, they’re one of my favorite pairings in the MCU.


	7. Upgrades and Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this.

The meeting finished shortly after the Avengers offered their help. Since the Hulk had taken their Quinjet, they had decided that the group of superheroes would stay in the stables, with Natasha and Wanda using Coach Hedge’s room for a little more privacy.

Tony was currently in the engine room of the Argo II with Leo. They had taken some scientific equipment from the Helicarrier to help with their mission. Tony had also found a way to install F.R.I.D.A.Y. into the flying ship. She could help them with gathering information, or help while they were tinkering like she was doing now.

During their meeting, the Avengers had been told that monsters could only be hurt by certain materials. These materials were called Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold, but Thor had told them that Uru, the material that Mjölnir was made of was also able to kill monsters.

This led to a discussion about the Avengers' ability to destroy these monsters. None of their weapons were made of these materials after all. Apparently, he wouldn’t have that much trouble. While his missiles and bullets wouldn’t be able to hurt them, his energy weapons, like the repulsors and the lasers could.

In the end, the groups had decided that Leo and Tony would modify their weapons to allow them to be efficient in the field. Apparently, the young engineer had some spare materials on the ship.

That is what they were doing now, planning out each modification for the individual Avengers. Some of them had been quite easy to figure out. Things like coating the tips of Clint’s arrows in Celestial Bronze (the lighter of the two materials), or adapting Imperial Gold versions of the hidden blades from the Mark XXXIII into the current suit after it was repaired from the recent battle.

They had thought about converting some of the bronze or gold into bullets for Natasha, but they had ultimately decided that it would be too expensive to do so since unlike Clint, she wouldn’t be able to reuse them. In the end, they had decided to add bronze ends to her batons and add a bronze coating to some of her knives.

The rest of the Avengers took a little longer. They had decided to add an attachable sharp bronze or golden edge around Cap’s shield. This would allow him to use it to cut the monsters down from up close, but it would still allow him to throw it with accuracy since the weight change would be minimal.

Since Pietro didn’t use any weapons outside of his speed, they decided to make him some brass knuckles. Neither his sister or Vision really needed any weapons, and Thor already had Mjölnir, which was made out of this Uru he had told them about.

After the upgrades were decided upon, Tony had asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to run some calculations on how much Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold they would need for the collective modifications. He decided to ask Leo about something that had been bugging him ever since they had gotten on board.

“So,” he began, getting the boy’s attention. “How come no one sees a flying boat in the sky? I mean you’ve flown all the way from L.A. to here, I’d assume someone would have seen you by now.” He asked.

Leo chuckled, “Apparently there is something that is called the Mist, which hides us from mortals.” He told Tony while fiddling with his toolbelt. He had told Tony that he was able to get most of the common tools you’d find in a workshop out of the thing. “That’s why we’ve been able to go undiscovered since the fall of the Roman Empire.”

“Alright, so why were we able to see it then?” Tony asked him while looking at the screen in front of him to see the results of F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s calculations.

“I don’t really know,” Leo told him, “Annabeth said that the Mist has been weakened since the Battle of New York. People used to be able to tell themselves that they were seeing things, but since 2012, mortals believe a lot of things that used to be impossible.”

“But why would we be able to see you when the rest of the world couldn’t see the big flying boat over their heads?” Tony replied, turning back to face the boy.

“It’s probably a combination of things,” Leo began, “First off, you were already in a flying city, which probably weakened the Mist even more. There’s also the fact that you have a Norse god on your team. I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if your prolonged proximity to him has lessened the effect that the Mist has on you.”

“Yeah that makes sense,” Tony responded, turning back to the screen when F.R.I.D.A.Y. notified them that the calculations were done. “What do you want to do first?”

* * *

While Tony and Leo were working on their gear, Steve and Natasha were talking with Annabeth and Percy. He had determined pretty early on that they were the leaders of the group of demigods.

Right now they were discussing the plans for stopping Gaea and the giants.

“Thanks to Piper, we know that a group of spirits has gathered in Ithaca, awaiting Gaea’s orders,” Annabeth informed them. We had planned on going there to determine our next plan of action.”

“What are our options?” Steve asked the girl, looking at the map of Greece in front of them.

Annabeth turned the map so it was oriented towards them. “Right now, we have two options for getting to the Olympus. We can go directly, through the Straits of Corinth and passed Delphi, or we can go around the Peloponnese, which would be a lot longer, but it will most likely be less guarded too.” She told them while tracing the routes which had been marked before.”

“How are you gonna get help in Ithaca,” Natasha asked her, “If they’re gathering to help Gaea, I don’t think they’ll be much help for directions.”

“Hazel is gonna use the Mist to disguise one of us. That person will ask about the defenses Gaea has in either of the two routes.” Percy answered her.

“The Mist?” Natasha asked, looking between the two.

“It’s what hides us from mortals,” Annabeth answered her, “Hazel and children of Hecate can also use it to create illusions. We’re planning on using that in Ithaca.”

“Does it matter who you use this mist on?” Steve asked.

Annabeth looked like she understood what he was getting at, while Percy answered him, “I don’t think so, why?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading,
> 
> I want to start by saying that I have always thought that Percy and Annabeth are the unofficial leaders of the Seven. I mean, with the exception of maybe Jason, they have more experience than any of the other demigods. That's why they are with Cap and Natasha, who always seemed like the strategists (combined with Tony) of the Avengers.
> 
> You might also have noticed that there are a lot less POV changes in this chapter, this will probably stay this way for now, except maybe during other fights.
> 
> While rereading the first chapters of The Blood of Olympus, I saw that the date of those chapters was July 20, this contradicts the timeline that of this taking place a week after the House of Hades. To make this work and still have the Blood of Olympus be about the same time frame (it ends on August 1), I decided to have the entire series after Son of Neptune take place a week earlier. Let’s just say that they made some extra time while going across the Atlantic, which means that they had a week for Annabeth and Percy to recover.
> 
> The next chapter will see the beginning of BoO, sorry this is a little short, but I wanted to get this out today and I have someone coming over today, so I had to finish it here.


	8. Natasha Is An Old Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but in return, you get an extra-long chapter.
> 
> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

Natasha did not like being old. Specifically, she didn’t like being an old ancient Greek beggar. She didn’t like complaining, but Hazel’s illusion might have overdone it a little.

From what they had been told by the demigods, Gaea had summoned a large group of ghosts to Ithaca, which used to be Odysseus’ home. After Hazel had confirmed that it didn’t really matter who the Mist was used on, Steve had explained his plan.

Instead of sending in Jason, which had been the plan before they joined, they were going to send her in. It made a lot of sense, she was a trained spy after all.

That’s how she ended up climbing this hill, looking and feeling like an old man. Piper and Annabeth were with her, disguised as serving maidens, their weapons hidden in the amphora’s they carried.

When they reached the ruined palace, Natasha was a little surprised by what she saw. From what she had been able to find before this mission, there wasn’t that much left of Odysseus' old palace.

And while that was true, she could see what almost looked like a holographic image laid over the ruins, showing what it must have looked like when the famous king was still alive.

She also saw that there were more ghosts than there should have been. According to the demigods, there should have been about a hundred of them, the ghosts of the suitors that Odysseus had slain. Instead, she could see at least twice as many feasting in the palace.

They didn’t all look like what she had expected ghosts to look like. Most of them did, but she could also see some zombie-like men walking around. Some of them even looked like they were still alive.

While looking around the palace, she saw one of the zombie men, who seemed to have an arrow piercing his throat, walking through a larger group. He had a bust over his head and shouted about feeding the “Earth Mother.” While he did this, he walked towards a fountain that seemed to be spewing out sand. The zombie threw in the bust, which disintegrated as soon as it touched the sand.

“I think that’s Antinous,” Annabeth told her, “He was one of the leaders of the suitors. Odysseus shot him through the neck.”

Piper winced. “You’d think that would keep a guy down. What about all the others? Why are there so many?”

“I don’t know,” Annabeth said. “Newer recruits for Gaea, I guess. Some must’ve come back to life before we closed the Doors of Death. Some are just spirits. I think some of the others are ghouls.”

Natasha had just reached the edge of the crowd when she heard someone cry out her ‘name’.

“IROS!” she turned around and saw that Antinous was looking at her. “Is that you old beggar?”

“That’s right,” she replied, drawing the attention of more ghosts, some seeming antagonistic towards ‘Iros’.

“I see that I arrived late,” she continued, slipping into her role. “I hope there’s still some food left for me.”

One of the ghosts sneered in disgust. “Ungrateful old panhandler. Should I kill him?”

Antinous regarded her for a moment, then chuckled. “I’m in a good mood today. Come, Iros, join me at my table.”

Natasha followed the ghoul towards one of the larger tables and sat across from him. Some of the other ghosts crowed around them.

Now that she sat close to him, Natasha took a better look at the dead man. His eyes were yellows, which would have no doubt resulted in a Star Wars reference if Stark were here.

She could also see a stream of dirt falling from his scalp, mud filled the old sword cuts in his gray skin, and another stream of dirt fell out of the arrow wound in his throat.

While she observed this, the ghoul slid a golden goblet and a plate filled with meat towards her. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Iros. But I suppose even a beggar can sue for retribution. Drink. Eat.”

Natasha didn’t hesitate to grab the meat and start eating. She didn’t want to know what kind of meat it was, but she had to keep in character, and right now, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“So where can I get me some of that retribution you were talking about?” she asked, grabbing the goblet, which was luckily filled with some form of wine, and not the blood that it looked like.

The ghosts seemed to appreciate her willingness to participate, one of them actually pushing her shoulder.

Antinous leaned forward. “Tell me, Iros, what do you have to offer? We don’t need you to run messages for us like in the old days. Certainly, you aren’t a fighter. As I recall, Odysseus crushed your jaw and tossed you into the pigsty.”

Natasha thought back to what she had read about Iros. He was used as a messenger for the suitors in exchange for food. Until he made the mistake of getting into a fight with Odysseus when he came home disguised as another beggar. “What am I getting out of it,” she asked, staying in her role as a beggar.

Antinous spread his hands. “The entire world, my friend. The first time we met here, we were only after Odysseus’s land, his money, and his wife.”

“Especially his wife!” A bald ghost in ragged clothes elbowed Natasha in the ribs. “That Penelope was a hot little honey cake!” causing Natasha to inwardly sneer in disgust.

Antinous sneered. “Eurymachus, you whining coward. You never stood a chance with Penelope. I remember you blubbering and pleading for your life with Odysseus, blaming everything on me!”

“Lot of good it did me.” Eurymachus lifted his tattered shirt, revealing an inch-wide hole in the middle of his spectral chest. “Odysseus shot me in the heart, just because I wanted to marry his wife!”

“At any rate...” Antinous turned to Natasha. “We have gathered now for a much bigger prize. Once Gaea destroys the gods, we will divide up the remnants of the mortal world!”

“Dibs on London!” yelled a ghoul at the next table.

“Montreal!” shouted another.

“Duluth!” yelled a third, which momentarily stopped the conversation as the other ghosts gave him confused looks.

“What about the new guys?” Natasha asked, “I count at least two hundred men here, and at least half of them I don’t know.”

Antinous’s yellow eyes gleamed. “All of them are suitors for Gaea’s favor. All have claims and grievances against the gods or their pet heroes. That scoundrel over there is Hippias, former tyrant of Athens. He got deposed and sided with the Persians to attack his own countrymen. No morals whatsoever. He’d do anything for power.”

“Thank you!” called Hippias.

“That rogue with the turkey leg in his mouth,” Antinous continued, “that’s Hasdrubal of Carthage. He has a grudge to settle with Rome.”

“Mhmm,” said the Carthaginian.

“And Michael Varus, He’s a Roman demigod. Lost his legion’s eagle in...Alaska, was it? Doesn’t matter. Gaea lets him hang around. He insists he has some insight into defeating Camp Jupiter. But you, Iros—you still haven’t answered my question. Why should you be welcome among us?”

Natasha was momentarily distracted by the Roman. He seemed to see right through Hazel’s illusion. She shrugged It off and turned back to Antinous. “Because I’m still running messages, you idiot!” she shouted, slamming a fist to the table, “I’ve just come from the House of Hades to see what you’ve been up to since Gaea brought you back.”

That seemed to surprise Antinous. “You expect me to believe Gaea sent you -a beggar- to check up on us?”

Natasha thought back to what the demigods had told them about the House of Hades before she continued, “I was among the last to leave Epirus before the Doors of Death were closed! I saw the chamber where Clytius stood guard under a domed ceiling tiled with tombstones. I walked the jewel-and-bone floors of the Necromanteion!”

This seemed to convince most of the ghosts that she was telling the truth, so she continued.

“So, Antinous...” Natasha jabbed a finger at the ghoul. “Maybe you should explain to me why you’re worthy of Gaea’s favor. All I see is a crowd of lazy, dawdling dead folk enjoying themselves and not helping the war effort. What should I tell the Earth Mother?”

“If you come from Gaea, you must know we are here under orders. Porphyrion decreed it. You do know Porphyrion?”

Natasha thought back again, “King of the giants, green skin, white eyes, weapons in his hair, about forty feet tall? Of course I know him, now what am I supposed to tell Gaea?”

That seemed to catch Antinous of guard, but Eurymachus put an arm around Natasha’s shoulders.

“Now, now, friend!” Eurymachus smelled like sour wine and burning electrical wires. His ghostly touch made her rib cage tingle. “I’m sure we didn’t mean to question your credentials! It’s just, well, if you’ve spoken with Porphyrion in Athens, you know why we’re here. I assure you, we’re doing exactly as he ordered!”

This surprised Natasha. The demigods had told the team that the giants were planning to tear the original Olympus down, but now this guy was telling her that they were in Athens instead.

“The giants awaken Gaea in the Acropolis,” Natasha concluded.

“Of course!” Eurymachus laughed. The wound in his chest made a popping sound, like a porpoise’s blowhole. “And to get there, those meddlesome demigods will have to travel by sea, eh? They know it’s too dangerous to fly over land.”

“Which means they’ll have to pass this island,” Natasha said. Thinking about the consequences of Gaea’s plan. This would actually help them in their journey. Athens was a lot closer than Mt. Olympus.

Eurymachus nodded eagerly. He removed his arm from Natasha’s shoulders and dipped his finger in her wineglass. “At that point, they’ll have to make a choice, eh?”

On the tabletop, he traced a coastline, red wine glowing unnaturally against the wood. He drew Greece like a misshapen hourglass- a large dangly blob for the northern mainland, then another blob below it, almost as large- the big chunk of land known as the Peloponnese. Cutting between them was a narrow line of sea- the Straits of Corinth.

“The most direct route,” Eurymachus continued, “would be due east from here, across the Straits of Corinth. But if they try to go that way-”

“Enough,” Antinous snapped. “You have a loose tongue, Eurymachus.”

The ghost looked offended. “I wasn’t going to tell him everything! Just about the Cyclopes armies massed on either shore. And the raging storm spirits in the air. And those vicious sea monsters Keto sent to infest the waters. And of course, if the ship got as far as Delphi-”

“Idiot!” Antinous lunged across the table and grabbed the ghost’s wrist. A thin crust of dirt spread from the ghoul’s hand, straight up Eurymachus’s spectral arm.

“No!” Eurymachus yelped. “Please! I- I only meant-” he screamed as the dirt covered him entirely, before cracking open, nothing but dust remaining on the inside.

“Apologies, Iros.” Antinous smiled coldly. “All you need to know- the ways to Athens are well guarded, just as we promised. The demigods would either have to risk the straits, which are impossible, or sail around the entire Peloponnese, which is hardly much safer. In any event, it’s unlikely they will survive long enough to make that choice. Once they reach Ithaca, we will know. We will stop them here, and Gaea will see how valuable we are. You can take that message back to Athens.”

This raised some alarm for Natasha. The way that Antinous was talking made it seem like the ghosts could detect the Argo II. Hazel’s Illusions seemed to be hiding them so far, but there was no guarantee that it would stay that way.

They had the intel they needed. They needed to get to Athens, and they had to go around the coast. Erymachus had also mentioned Delphi. The demigods had mentioned the ancient town, they had hoped to visit the oracle there.

She pushed her plate to the side, “Sounds like you’ve got everything under control then, Antinous,” She told the ghoul. “You better make sure that you do, these demigods closed the Doors of Death after all. Don’t underestimate them. We don’t want them to get help in Delphi.”

Antinous chuckled. “No risk of that. Delphi is no longer in Apollo’s control.”

“Good to know, and what about the Peloponnese?

“You worry too much. That journey is never safe for demigods, and it’s much too far. Besides, Victory runs rampant in Olympia. As long as that’s the case, there is no way the demigods can win this war.”

“Very well,” Natasha replied to him while getting up, “I’ll report this to King Porphyrion, thank you for the meal.”

“Wait.” Natasha froze. It was the Roman ghost, Michael Varus.

He walked over to her, “You must stay.” He said.

Antinous shot the ghost an irritated look. “What’s the problem, legionnaire? If Iros wants to leave, let him. He smells bad!”

The other ghosts laughed nervously. From across the courtyard, Piper shot Natasha a worried look while a little farther away, Annabeth casually took a carving knife from the nearest platter of meat.

Varus rested his hand on the pommel of his sword. Despite the heat, his breastplate was glazed with ice. “I lost my cohort twice in Alaska- once in life, once in death to a Graecus named Percy Jackson. Still, I have come here to answer Gaea’s call. Do you know why?”

“Stubbornness?” Natasha answered him, trying to subtly get her newly modified batons ready.

“This is a place of longing,” Varus said. “All of us are drawn here, sustained not only by Gaea’s power but also by our strongest desires. Eurymachus’s greed. Antinous’s cruelty.”

“You flatter me,” the ghoul muttered.

“Hasdrubal’s hatred,” Varus continued. “Hippias’s bitterness. My ambition. And you, Iros. What has drawn you here? What does a beggar most desire? Perhaps a home?”

Natasha got a bad feeling about this guy, but she still kept her cover. “What is it you want Roman? I’ve got better things to do than listen to your speech.”

Michael Varus drew his sword. “My father is Janus, the god of two faces. I am used to seeing through masks and deceptions. Do you know, Iros, why we are so sure the demigods will not pass our island undetected?”

Natasha turned to Antinous. “Are you in charge here or not? Maybe you should muzzle your Roman.”

The ghoul took a deep breath. The arrow rattled in his throat. “Ah, but this might be entertaining. Go on, Varus.”

The dead Roman raised his sword. “Our desires reveal us. They show us who we really are. What do you desire Miss Romanoff?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have arrived at the Blood of Olympus. Sorry for the unannounced short break, I have a busy couple of weeks coming up. Therefore, I may not be able to update as frequently or as consistently as I have been for the first chapters.
> 
> I took a lot from the first chapters of the book for this chapter. The reason that I switched Jason for Nat is that I thought it would make sense. First off, she is a master assassin and while she is not The Spy, she is still a spy. There is also the fact that she is mortal.
> 
> This gives them two advantages. One Gaea and the enemy troops wouldn’t expect the demigods to use mortals to help with their quest. Two, she can’t be hurt by Imperial Gold or Celestial Bronze. Unlike Jason, she doesn’t have to worry about being stabbed through the back and being bedridden for days.
> 
> Some of this was taken directly from the book, specifically when characters interacted with each other and not Natasha, although a lot of Antinous and Eurymachus dialogue is also taken straight from the book since they think they’re talking to the Iros.


	9. We're Off To Capture A Goddess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

The Avengers and demigods sat in the mess hall, waiting for Natasha, Annabeth, and Piper to return from the palace. They had given Natasha an earpiece, so she could still communicate with the rest of the team. The demigods had refused an earpiece, fearing that it would attract monsters, or possibly alert the ghosts to their presence. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was also monitoring them and kept them updated about any developments.

While they waited, the team was talking to the group of demigods, hoping to learn more about each other. Tony could see Clint and Pietro talking to Percy and Frank. Cap stood next to Vision, probably making more plans. It was still a little odd to hear Vision. Tony could recognize the parts of J.A.R.V.I.S. that were in the android, but there were also large parts of him that were totally different. He also seemed to have some difficulty with finding his place in the team.

A little bit further away, Tony could see Wanda talking to Hazel. From what he was told, he had gathered that the daughter of Pluto was able to manipulate the energy that was keeping the gods hidden from the mortal world. Even after everything he had seen, the thought of magic was still hard to accept. Even Thor and the other Norse gods were more like an advanced race than actually magical. According to the demigods, however, magic was very real. He’d have to have a talk to the girl too if he got a chance. Just to see if he could figure out how it worked. It was a shame that Bruce had ran off, he’d probably be all over this.

Thor was a little further off, talking to Jason, and Rhodey was standing next to him and Leo. Tony had really taken a liking to the kid. He was a prodigy when it came to mechanics, which wasn’t all that surprising when his dad was the god of technology. Rhodey also seemed to like him, even though he probably didn’t understand at least half of what he was saying. The kid also had a great sense of humor, and he was seriously ADHD.

Right now he was talking about possible upgrades to the Avengers’ gear, particularly his and Rhodey’s armor. He’d asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to make notes of his suggestions since most of them actually had a lot of promise.

He was in the middle of explaining a new idea for collapsible plating which would make the armor a lot quicker to deploy. It would also allow the helmet to collapse, allowing his head more maneuverability when he wasn’t in a combat situation. That’s when Natasha’s voice came in over the comms.

_“Guys, we’re compromised.”_ All the Avengers immediately had their full attention to what she was saying. _“We could use some backup up here, there’s at least two hundred hostiles in this place.”_

The team was up the moment she stopped talking, waiting for Steve’s orders.

“Alright, they’ve been made, so we need to act fast. There are about two hundred of them up there, so we shouldn’t need everyone.” He took a moment to think who should be sent up before continuing. “Rhodes, Pietro, and Thor, you go up.” He said, looking at the three of them, before turning to the demigods. “Are any of you either fast or capable of flight?”

After the three Avengers left with Frank and Jason, Steve turned to Hazel.

“Do you know what happened?” he asked her, referring to the unmasking of Natasha.

“Not exactly. Someone must have seen through the illusions, that could have caused them to fail.” She answered him. “It’s like with the ship in Novi Grad. The moment you were notified of a flying ship, the Mist stopped hiding it from you.”

“Like with a magician?” Barton cut in, “The moment you know the trick, the whole illusion falls apart.”

“Yes, that’s it. That’s also the reason that nobody else saw the Argo II even after you could.”

Steve looked at Vision. It seemed like they’d expected this.

“So if you told someone what was really happening, you would break through the Mist?” the android asked her.

She was about to answer him when Percy interrupted. “Depends on the person. My stepfather was a part of the Battle of Manhattan, but he couldn’t. but my friend Rachel has always been able to see through the Mist. Sometimes better than I could. Why do you ask?”

Steve answered his question. “I know a guy.”

* * *

Natasha had just stabbed through two more ghosts when their backup arrived. The group landed in different places, all near one of the women that were already there, and Pietro just ran around the palace,

Rhodey backed her up with the blades that were now part of the War Machine Armor, slicing through the undead suitors left and right. She saw Thor and Jason land near the fountain where Piper was shooting food out of her cornucopia while using her sword to take out any ghost that she could reach.

She was a little surprised to see Jason just flying down towards his girlfriend, but it made sense since he was the son of Jupiter. It was a lot more surprising to see an eagle turn into Frank when he and Vision landed next to Annabeth.

She was taken off guard long enough that could only partially move away from an incoming strike. The blade hit her arm, only to go straight through without wounding her.

While this was just as confusing as Eagle-Frank, it did snap her back to reality. She took out the ghost that had attacked her, cursing to herself for being caught off guard, and went back into the fight.

With the added help, they made short work of the remaining ghosts. It helped that they apparently couldn’t be hurt by the ghost’s weapons and that Thor and vision were wiping the floor with any ghosts that came near.

The battle had just ended when she saw the ghost that had seen through their disguise sneak up on Jason. He was about to stab his sword through his gut when he turned to dust, mowed down by Mjölnir.

Jason immediately turned around, obviously startled by the hammer.

“Never let your guard down in a battle,” the Norse god told him, to which the boy nodded in thanks.

“Alright, we’re clear,” Rhodey said from next to Natasha, before addressing her, “Did you get what we needed?”

“Yes, we go around the Peloponnese. The other route is too well guarded, and apparently, Delphi is no longer in Olympian control.” She answered him.

“Then we can return to the ship,” Thor said, while he began to spin Mjölnir to take off.

“Wait!” Jason called out, getting everyone’s attention. “There was a special bed here.”

“Great kid, but we don’t exactly have the time to go to IKEA.” Rhodey interrupted him.

“No, the marriage bed was sacred. If there is any place that we can call Juno, it’s there.” He replied, before calling out the goddess’ name.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then, on the other side of the courtyard, the floor started to crack. The ground opened up and an olive tree started growing out.

A woman wearing a white dress and a leopard-skin over her shoulder stood underneath the canopy. She was holding a staff with a white lotus flower in her hand, and her face was cool and regal.

“My heroes,” the goddess, because that’s what she had to be, said.

“Hera,” Piper said.

“Juno,” Jason corrected her.

“Whatever,” Annabeth grumbled, surprising the Avengers. “What are you doing here, Your Bovine Majesty?”

Juno’s dark eyes glittered dangerously. “Annabeth Chase. As charming as ever.”

“Yeah, well,” Annabeth said, “I just got back from Tartarus, so my manners are a little rusty, especially toward goddesses who wiped my boyfriend’s memory, made him disappear for months, and then-”

“Honestly, child. Are we going to rehash this again?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be suffering from split personality disorder?” Annabeth asked. “I mean- more so than usual?”

Even Thor looked unsure as to what was going on. Clearly, Annabeth had some issues with the Queen of Olympus, but it seemed like a bad idea to insult a deity.

Luckily, Jason interrupted them, hopefully getting them back on track. “Juno, we need your help-”

“Heroes, our time together is short,” Juno interrupted him “I am grateful that you called upon me. I have spent weeks in a state of pain and confusion...my Greek and Roman natures warring against each other. Worse, I’ve been forced to hide from Jupiter, who searches for me in his misguided wrath, believing that I caused this war with Gaea.”

“Gee,” Annabeth said, causing some more nervous glances between the group “Why would he think that?”

Fortunately, Juno only flashed her an irritated look. “Fortunately, this place is sacred to me. By clearing away those ghosts, you have purified it and given me a moment of clarity. I will be able to speak with you- if only briefly.”

“Why is it sacred...?” Piper’s eyes widened. “Oh. The marriage bed!”

“Marriage bed?” Annabeth asked, voicing their thoughts. “I don’t see any-”

“The bed of Penelope and Odysseus,” Piper explained. “One of its bedposts was a living olive tree, so it could never be moved.”

“Indeed.” Juno ran her hand along the olive tree’s trunk. “An immovable marriage bed. Such a beautiful symbol! Like Penelope, the most faithful wife, standing her ground, fending off a hundred arrogant suitors for years because she knew her husband would return. Odysseus and Penelope—the epitome of a perfect marriage!”

Natasha didn’t know much about mythology, but she seemed to recall that Odysseus had fallen for more than one other woman in his journeys, but decided that it was best to avoid irritating the goddess any more than Annabeth already had.

“Can you give us some advice please?” She asked her instead. “Which route should we take to Athens?”

“Sail around the Peloponnese,” the goddess answered. “As you suspect, that is the only possible route. On your way, seek out the goddess of victory in Olympia. She is out of control. Unless you can subdue her, the rift between Greek and Roman can never be healed, and even your mortal world will not be spared in the conflict that will follow.”

“You mean Nike?” Annabeth asked. “How is she out of control?”

Thunder boomed overhead, shaking the hill. “Explaining would take too long,” Juno said. “I must flee before Jupiter finds me. Once I leave, I will not be able to help you again.”

“What else should we know?” Jason asked.

“As you heard, the giants have gathered in Athens. Few gods will be able to help you on your journey, but I am not the only Olympian who is out of favor with Jupiter. The twins have also incurred his wrath.” Natasha wasn’t sure who she meant by that, but Piper answered her question before she could ask.

“Artemis and Apollo?” Piper asked. “Why?”

Juno’s image began to fade. “If you reach the island of Delos, they might be prepared to help you. They are desperate enough to try anything to make amends. Go now. Perhaps we will meet again in Athens if you succeed. If you do not...”

The goddess disappeared before she could finish her sentence.

Rhodey broke the silence that followed. “Well she seems nice. Great advice, let’s just go capture a goddess, shouldn’t be a problem right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but as I said in the last chapter, I have some pretty busy weeks ahead of me (I really don’t have the time to even write this).
> 
> Anyway, let’s talk about the chapter/story. First off, some of you might be wondering why I sent them reinforcements when Jason, Piper, and Annabeth were able to handle it just fine in the book (aside from the stabbing part). Well, the reason for that is that they could ask for them in this story.
> 
> In the book, they have no way to contact the Argo II besides the flares that would signal Leo to send in an ancient Greek missile to blow up the hill, but the Avengers can communicate with their comms, which would allow them to ask for backup. If Jason, Annabeth, or Piper had had the opportunity to call for backup, I’m pretty sure they would have.
> 
> As for why I didn’t let Jason get stabbed, one, there are too many people on his side to allow Michael Varus to sneak up on him, and two, I don’t really see the point of having him get stabbed. I don’t think it would add anything to the story.
> 
> For people that were curious about Rhodey only showing up now, I kinda sorta maybe forgot about him until this chapter. I hope you don’t mind that I just added him here, but I don’t think he would have really added anything in the other chapters, aside from mentions about what they do for his armor (which is just exactly the same as for Tony).
> 
> I also realized that I only mentioned that Natasha would be getting a separate room, but I have edited it now so Wanda and Nat are roommates. I guess I just forgot about the non-original Avengers in chapter 7.
> 
> Now the next part is my response to a review on Fanfiction.net, but since others might also be interested I’m gonna post it here as well.  
> Awesomesauce: since I have given you a quite elaborate answer before, I’m just gonna summarize that and then add something that I hope will clear it up, so in summary: I don’t think It’s hypocritical of me to not break up Annabeth and Percy for a Wanda/Percy story, because there is no way to break them up after everything they’ve been through without killing one of them off.
> 
> To add to that, I want to explain my reasoning behind allowing myself to break up Bruce and Nat since it is still a canon pairing. My reasoning is simple: there is no real explanation or chemistry between them. They fall in love, because she’s hot, and he’s Joss Whedon’s favorite Avenger (don’t quote me on that, it’s just to get the point across). 
> 
> As for my reasoning of not doing a Percy/Annabeth/Wanda story: I just don’t like polygamy. I don’t mind reading stories with them (though I prefer it if it isn’t the focus), but I don’t want to write about it.
> 
> I agree that Percy/Wanda would be a cute pairing, but it isn’t right for this story, mainly because I believe that Percy and Annabeth would never break up after Tartarus. I hope that this clears up my reasoning for you. I’m not angry btw, I just had to go on that small rant to make my point.
> 
> I hope that I can get a new chapter up by next week, but if I can’t I’m not abandoning this story. I’m just really busy right now so I might not have the time to write.
> 
> Stay tuned.


	10. That Is One Big Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

Reyna and Hedge had just finished their breakfast when the man walked into the courtyard.

“Well that’s something you don’t see every day,” he said, looking at the Athena Parthenos. “Guess they weren’t messing with me after all.”

The man had dark skin. He was well built and had a goatee. He was wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses, and he had a duffel bag strapped over his shoulder.

“I was really sure they were having me on you know,” the man continued, “I mean two kids and a goat transporting a forty-foot statue across the world. What else do you want to tell me, there really is a monster under my bed? And I thought the world wouldn’t get any crazier.”

The man had turned away from the Athena Parthenos and was now looking at the two of them, or more accurately, he was dodging a swing from Coach Hedge’s baseball bat.

“Whoa, easy man, I didn’t mean anything with the goat comment.” He said, ducking under another blow.

“Satyr,” the coach responded. He’d stopped attacking him, but he still held his bat ready.”

“Alright, satyr, my bad.” He extended a hand to Hedge, “Sam Wilson, I’m here to help.”

* * *

The group was discussing the plan when Clint walked into the room.

“You’re saying Nike has a dark side?” Frank asked.

“Her kids sure do,” Annabeth said. “They never turn down a challenge. They have to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense...”

“Whoa.” Piper put her hands on the table like she was trying to recover from a blow to the head. “Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike’s that way, and she’s the goddess of victory-”

“She’d be really conflicted,” Annabeth said. “She’d want one side or the other to win so she could declare a victor. She’d literally be fighting with herself.”

“And neither of those sides can win if we want a shot at beating Gaea,” Stark said, eating some blueberries.

“Where do you keep getting those things,” Clint interrupted the conversation.

“They had some onboard, do you want any?” he answered, offering the cup to him.

“Let’s get back on track,” Steve said, “We can’t leave Nike running around like this. She’s the goddess of victory. If we want to have any chance of uniting the two camps, we need to find a way to calm her down.

“How?” Leo asked. “Start a flame war on Twitter?”

Percy stabbed his fork into a pile of blue pancakes. “Maybe she’s like Ares. That guy can spark a fight just by walking into a crowded room. If Nike radiates competitive vibes or something, she could aggravate the whole Greek-Roman rivalry big-time.”

Frank pointed at Percy. “You remember that old sea god in Atlanta, Phorcys? He said that Gaea’s plans always have lots of layers. This could be part of the giants’ strategy. Keep the two camps divided; keep the gods divided. If that’s the case, we can’t let Nike play us against each other. We should send a landing party of six. Two Greeks, two Romans, and two Avengers. The balance might help keep her balanced.”

“He’s right, if we take away possible conflict, we might remove her influence over the group,” Natasha said.

“That means that we have to think about who we send in. We can’t have the group fighting between ourselves.” Annabeth agreed.

“I’ll go,” Piper said. “I can try charmspeaking.”

Worry lines deepened around Annabeth’s eyes. “Not this time, Piper. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite...well, she is too, in her own way. I think Nike might see you as a threat.”

Annabeth’s words didn’t seem to upset her. Piper just nodded and scanned the group. “Who should go, then?”

“Jason and Percy shouldn’t go together,” Annabeth said. “Jupiter and Poseidon, bad combination. Nike could start you two fighting easily.”

Percy gave her a sideways smile. “Yeah, we can’t have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason.”

“Or I might kill my bro Percy,” Jason said amiably.

“What happened in Kansas,” Rhodey asked.

“They were possessed by evil spirits and tried to kill each other. I had to convince his pegasus to knock Percy out.”

“Anyway, they just proved my point,” Annabeth said. “We also shouldn’t send Frank and me together. Mars and Athena, that would be just as bad.”

“Okay,” Leo broke in. “So Percy and me for the Greeks. Frank and Hazel for the Romans. Who’s going for you guys?”

“Well sending in Stark with me or Thor is a definite no,” Steve answered her, “We might have gotten better since Loki, but I’d like not to test that relationship with a goddess that brings out competitiveness if I can avoid it.”

“I think we should avoid Stark altogether,” Natasha said.

“Agreed,” Stark said, taking another blueberry out of the cup.

“Thor might be a good idea though,” Percy spoke up. “If we’re going up against a goddess, it might not be a bad thing if we bring one with us.”

“He’s right. I’ve never met Nike myself, but I know the Olympians are not to be taken lightly. I might be able to restrain her when we find her.” Thor agreed.

“Alright, so we send in Thor in. I think we should avoid the twins. She might be able to bring out some ill will for what happened with Ultron.” Stark said,

Vision spoke up then, “What about me? Would she be able to affect my programming? Besides, the Mind Stone might be able to protect us against her powers.”

“Good one. So is that settled then? We send in Frank and Hazel for the Romans, Percy and Leo for the Greeks, and Thor and Vision for us.” Steve said, looking around the table, receiving nods from everyone. “Alright then, what’s the plan for actually taking her on?”

* * *

“So where’s the third guy? I was told there were three people with the giant statue.” Sam followed the satyr and the Roman girl to their camp.

When they reached it, he could see him lying there, dead to the world. “Ah, there he is.”

“Who sent you?” the Roman girl asked him, still on guard.

“A buddy of mine gave me a call, told me about two teenagers and a goat-man that were trying to get a gigantic statue to New York.” Sam said while sitting down next to the fire, “Is he alright? He looks kinda dead.”

“He’s fine, just tired,” The goat-man answered him, still holding his baseball bat. “Who’s this friend of yours? You’re mortal aren’t you?”

“Steve Rogers. And yeah, I am,” he said while taking some food out of his bag, “He also said something about the Greek gods being real, and the earth waking up.”

“You seem to be taking that rather well,” the girl said, checking the courtyard around them.

“Yeah well, that’s the world we live in. I mean, look at what’s happened over the last five years. A billionaire is kidnapped and makes a flying metal suit to escape, Steve wakes up after being frozen for seventy years. The Norse gods turn out to be aliens and one of them leads an alien army to New York, do I need to go on?”

“I can see how that would make people accept another pantheon, but why did Captain America send you to us? Last time I checked he wasn’t a demigod.” The girl said, looking at the goat-man for confirmation.

“He isn’t, and how did you even find us in the first place. We didn’t even know that we were going to be here,” he said while starting to lower his baseball bat.

“He said they had some help in Sokovia. Now they’re helping them out in return.”

“What were they doing in Sokovia?” the girl asked.

“Stopping Ultron from using Novi Grad as a meteor. What rock have you been living under?”

“We’ve been a bit busy over the last couple of weeks, the mortal world usually doesn’t intertwine with the immortal one,” she replied

“Well now it does, as for how I found you; well the demigods that the Avengers are working with knew where you were going, so they mapped out the route you would probably take. After that, it was just a question of using the satellites to find your location.

“And why did they send you?” the goat man asked after he finally sat down.

“I was in the area. Looking into a missing person case,” he answered. “We got a lead that he was sighted around here. Got the call from Steve before I could find out.”

“Who were you looking for?” the girl asked.

“An old friend of Cap, Bucky Barnes. Last year we found out that Hydra had brainwashed him and used him to do their dirty work. He snapped out of it, but he ran off before we could get to him.” Sam told them. “Anyway, I told you my name, can I know yours?”

“I’m Reyna, that’s Nico, and the satyr is called Gleeson.” She answered him.

“Well Reyna, why don’t you tell me some more about that statue of yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry that it’s been a while, I’ve been really busy with school
> 
> I hope that I got Sam right, please let me know.
> 
> One guest said that Jason being wounded was important for Kymopoleia, was it? Because I really don’t remember.
> 
> BTW, I don't know if this was clear, but they're in Pompeii.
> 
> Anyway, please review, it lets me know what you guys like.


	11. Gods, Ruins, and Adidas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

“So what do you know about Nike?” Steve asked Thor while they were walking around the ruins of Olympia.

They had decided to split up once they’d reached the city. Percy and Leo searched the museum, while Frank, Hazel, and the two of them looked for signs of the goddess in the ruins. Steve and Thor had to use civilian clothing to try and keep a low profile. Somehow, Thor had even turned Mjölnir into an umbrella, stating that while Loki was more adept at it, he did know some magic.

“Not that much,” Thor answered him while looking at some writing on one of the walls. “There has never been that much contact between the different pantheons, with the ego that most of us have, most conversations quickly turn into a brawl or shouting match,” he continued, adjusting the cap he was wearing. “Why did you make me wear one of these ridiculous things.”

“We’re trying to keep a low profile remember?” Steve reminded him, amused at seeing the mighty god of thunder struggling with a baseball cap.

“Yes but people can still see our faces, can’t they?” Thor pointed out, having finally decided to just keep cap the way it was before he started messing with it.

“You’ve got a point there.” Steve admitted, “Anyways, what were you saying about the different pantheons?”

“Right, Nike, as I said, the pantheons mostly avoid each other, most of the time things get out of hand, which can be disastrous for Midgard or the rest of the Nine Realms when we cross paths,” Thor told him, looking around for any sign of their target.

“So you’ve never met any of the Greek gods?” Steve asked.

“Oh no, Father has taken me and Loki to meetings with other gods sometimes, but we never really met with anyone besides the major gods. Some of them are actually quite alright. Hermes always has something interesting to say, not as serious as most of the others, you know,” he told Steve while turned a corner, “I met Hades once. He’s a bit bitter, but actually quite a reasonable person once you move past that. Percy’s father is also quite nice, both of them are a lot more reasonable than their brother, he’s a little full of himself,” Thunder boomed in the distance when Thor said this, which he just waved off, “Let’s see, who else. Aphrodite is a bit… different. For the rest, I have always liked Hestia, the goddess of the Hearth. She technically isn’t one of the Olympians any more, but she’s still at most of the meetings. She’s definitely the friendliest one.” They were almost at the rendezvous point now, Steve could see Leo and Percy already waiting for them there. “Athena is alright, but she can be quite cold at times, she puts too much value on the greater good sometimes,” They’d arrived back at the bridge by now.

“True,” Percy said, having apparently overheard the last part of their conversation. He continued when he saw the questioning looks they gave him. “What it is. She may be my girlfriend's mom, but that doesn’t change the fact that she voted for my death at least once.” More thunder followed that statement, which caused Percy to look up, “I think I have a right to be upset about that, you know!” he shouted, drawing some looks from the nearby tourists, before turning back to the group. “So did you find anything?”

“No. I’m guessing that you haven’t either?” Steve said while looking at the river.

“Nope, let’s hope that the others-“ Percy started to say before he was interrupted by a shout behind them.

“Guys!” Steve looked over and saw Frank waving for them to come over at the parking lot. Hazel was on her magical horse next to him. Apparently, it was the fastest horse in the world, which Steve could believe since it appeared out of nowhere as soon as they arrived.

Frank started talking when they had reached the parking lot. “This place is huge,” he said. “The ruins stretch from the river to the base of that mountain over there, about half a kilometer.

“How far is that in regular measurements?” Percy asked.

“It’s not that unusual to use a kilometer,” Thor said,

“Yes! Just because America doesn’t use the same system as the rest of the world-“

“About five or six football fields,” Hazel interceded, feeding Arion a big chunk of gold.

Percy spread his hands. “That’s all you needed to say.”

“Anyway,” Frank continued, “from overhead, I didn’t see anything suspicious.”

“Neither did I,” Hazel said. “Arion took me on a complete loop around the perimeter. A lot of tourists, but no crazy goddess.”

“Same for us, Steve said, while Arion nickered.

“Man, your horse can curse.” Percy shook his head. “He doesn’t think much of Olympia.”

“You speak horse?“ Steve turned to look at him.

“I told you, my dad’s the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses,” Percy answered him. “Usually they’re okay, but I’ve never met one that had as foul a mouth as that one. Quite ironic really, the horse that curses the most belongs to someone that would have gotten lightheaded if she could hear him a few months ago.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s wrong,” Leo said, “I’m quite done with the Olympics. It would be a shame to let all the toys I brought go to waste though.”

“Maybe we should just let her find us.” Percy said, “I mean if we give it enough time, trouble will come looking for us.”

They started walking around the ruins while Frank told them what was in a tourist pamphlet he found.

“This is the Propylon.” He waved toward a stone path lined with crumbling columns. “One of the main gates into the Olympic valley.”

“Rubble!” said Leo.

“And over there,” Frank pointed to a square foundation that looked like the patio for a Mexican restaurant, “is the Temple of Hera, one of the oldest structures here.”

“More rubble!” Leo said.

“And that round bandstand-looking thing—that’s the Philipeon, dedicated to Philip of Macedonia.”

“Even more rubble! First-rate rubble!” Leo commented again, which earned him a kick from Hazel.

“Doesn’t anything impress you?” She asked incredulously.

Frank continued his guided tour like he didn’t even hear them. “And over there...oh.” He glanced at Percy. “Uh, that semicircular depression in the hill, with the niches...that’s a nymphaeum, built in Roman times.”

Percy’s face turned green. “Here’s an idea: let’s not go there.”

To which Leo answered with “I love that idea,”

Steve and Thor looked to each other before turning to the demigods, “What happened at the last nymphaeum you visited?” Steve asked.

“A group of vengeful nymphs tried to kill us in Rome. They almost managed to drown me,” Percy answered him. “Can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been? Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, the savior of Olympus, supreme lord of the bathroom. Cause of death: drowning.” He said, causing the rest of the group to laugh.

“Anyway, this is the Pelopion,” Frank said, pointing to another ruin.

“Come on, Zhang,” Leo said. “ Pelopion isn’t even a word. What was it, a sacred spot for plopping ?”

Frank looked offended. “It’s the burial site of Pelops. This whole part of Greece, the Peloponnese, was named after him.”

Leo looked like he was about to throw something at Frank’s head. “I suppose I should know who Pelops was?”

“He was a prince, won his wife in a chariot race. Supposedly he started the Olympic games in honor of that.”

Hazel sniffed. “How romantic. ‘Nice wife you have, Prince Pelops.’ ‘Thanks. I won her in a chariot race.’”

They stopped at some wide steps leading to another ruined building, the Temple of Zeus, according to Frank.

“Used to be a huge gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus inside,” Zhang said. “One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Made by the same dude who did the Athena Parthenos.”

“Please tell me we don’t have to find it,” Percy said. “I’ve had enough huge magic statues for one trip.”

“Agreed.” Hazel patted Arion’s flank, as the stallion was acting skittish.

“Hey, Percy,” Leo said, “remember that statue of Nike in the museum? The one that was all in pieces?”

“Yeah?” The son of Poseidon replied.

“Didn’t it used to stand here, at the Temple of Zeus? Feel free to tell me I’m wrong. I’d love to be wrong.”

Percy’s hand went to his pocket. He slipped out his pen, which could apparently turn into a bronze sword called riptide. “You’re right. So if Nike was anywhere...this would be a good spot”

The group looked around for any sign of a delusional victory goddess, “I don’t see anything, Thor said, having raised his umbrella when Percy took out riptide.

“What if we promoted, like, Adidas shoes?” Percy wondered. “Would that make Nike mad enough to show up?”

Leo joined in on the joke, “Yeah, I bet that would totally be against her sponsorship deal. THOSE ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL SHOES OF THE OLYMPICS! YOU WILL DIE NOW!”

Hazel rolled her eyes. “You’re both impossible,” Steve secretly agreed with that statement.

Behind the group, a thunderous voice shook the ruins: “YOU WILL DIE NOW!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long break, I’m hoping to get the next chapter out in a week (Saturday).
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if the second half was mostly copy-pasted from Blood of Olympus.
> 
> No Sam this time, but that isn’t the focus of this story. I might just bring them in sometimes when I feel like it’s a good time.
> 
> Have a nice weekend.


	12. No More Metal People Please

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

The group of six immediately turned around upon hearing the shout. What they saw before them caused the group to pause.

Even Thor, who was used to the Asgardian elite and their customs, had rarely seen anything like this.

The goddess of Victory stood on a chariot before them. Nike wore a glittering sleeveless dress and she had a golden laurel wreath in her black hair. Her expression was a little crazed. As if she had just taken a lot of those drinks that mortals enjoyed – He seemed to remember Jane calling it coffee. She was also pointing a spear at the group.

What was unusual about her appearance, however, were the golden wings that sprouted from the goddess’ back. Every feather was made out of polished gold. They reflected enough sunlight to be blinding.

“Lady,” Leo was the first to recover from her sudden appearance, “could you fold your flappers, please? You’re giving me a sunburn.”

“What?” Nike’s head jerked toward him like a startled chicken’s. “Oh...my brilliant plumage. Very well. I suppose you can’t die in glory if you are blinded and burned.” She said, before tucking in her wings, immediately causing the temperature to drop.

Thor almost sighed in relief. He may have agreed with the boy’s statement, but it was always a bad idea to address a god with such disrespect. Especially one that is unbalanced like Nike.

After looking at his companions for any signs of initiating contact with the goddess, Thor decided to address her in their place.

“Lady Nike, we were informed by the lady Hera that you were in some form of distress,” he began, drawing Nike’s attention to him, “We were hoping we could help you in resolving the cause of this turmoil.”

“We must have victory!” the goddess shrieked. “The contest must be decided! You have come here to determine the winner, yes?”

Thor was about to ask her what she meant by this when Frank interjected. “Are you Nike or Victoria?” He asked.

“Aargh,” the goddess screamed and clutched the side of her head, before splitting into two separate images. The first version of the goddess stood on the left. On the right was a different version, dressed for war in a Roman breastplate and greaves. Short auburn hair peeked out from the rim of a tall helmet. Her wings were feathery white, her dress purple, and the shaft of her spear was fixed with a plate-sized Roman insignia - a golden SPQR in a laurel wreath.

“I am Nike!” cried the image on the left.

“I am Victoria!” cried the one on the right.

Thor could see the cause of the distress now. It appeared the daughter of the wisdom goddess was right, the goddess of victory was at war with herself.

“I am the decider of victory!” Nike screamed. “Once I stood here at the corner of Zeus’s temple, venerated by all! I oversaw the games of Olympia. Offerings from every city-state were piled at my feet!”

“Games are irrelevant!” yelled Victoria. “I am the goddess of success in battle! Roman generals worshipped me! Augustus himself erected my altar in the Senate House!”

“Ahhhh!” both voices screamed in agony. “We must decide! We must have victory!”

Her screams caused Arion to buck so violently that Hazel had to get off her horse. The moment her feet touched the ground, Arion disappeared, leaving only a trail of dust in his wake.

“Nike,” Hazel said, stepping forward slowly, “you’re confused, like all the gods. The Greeks and Romans are on the verge of war. It’s causing your two aspects to clash.”

“I know that!” The goddess shook her spear, which resulted in a mirage showing two points.“I cannot abide unresolved conflict! Who is stronger? Who is the winner?”

“Lady, nobody’s the winner,” Leo said. “If that war happens, everybody loses.”

“No winner?” The goddess looked at the boy in complete shock. “There is always a winner! One winner. Everyone else is a loser! Otherwise victory is meaningless. I suppose you want me to give certificates to all the contestants? Little plastic trophies to every single athlete or soldier for participation? Should we all line up and shake hands and tell each other, Good game? No! Victory must be real. It must be earned. That means it must be rare and difficult, against steep odds, and defeat must be the other possibility.”

The goddess’s two horses nipped at each other, clearly affected by the competitive aura of their owners.

“Uh...okay,” Leo said. “I can tell you’ve got strong feelings about that. But the real war is against Gaea.”

“He’s right,” Hazel said. “Nike, you were Zeus’s charioteer in the last war with the giants, weren’t you?”

“Of course!”

“Then you know Gaea is the real enemy. We need your help to defeat her. The war isn’t between the Greeks and Romans.” Victoria roared, “The Greeks must perish!” “Victory or death!” Nike wailed. “One side must prevail!”

Frank grunted. “I get enough of this from my dad screaming in my head.”

Victoria glared down at him. “A child of Mars, are you? A praetor of Rome? No true Roman would spare the Greeks. I cannot abide to be split and confused - I cannot think straight! Kill them! Win!”

“Not happening,” Frank said, though Thor noticed that his eye had begun twitching when the goddess addressed him.

Even Thor could notice the waves of tension that were rolling of the victory goddess. It was as if he was preparing for combat. Nerves and adrenaline building up before a battle.

“Look, Miss Victory...” Percy tried for a smile. “We don’t want to interrupt your crazy time. Maybe you can just finish this conversation with yourself and we’ll come back later, with, um, some bigger weapons, and possibly some sedatives.”

The goddess brandished her spear. “You will determine the matter once and for all! Today, now! You will decide the victor! six of you? Excellent! We will have teams. Perhaps girls versus boys!”

“Uh… no.” Hazel said.

“Shirts versus skins!”

“Definitely not,” Hazel said again, and Thor saw that the Captain’s face had flushed as well.

“Greeks versus Romans!” Nike cried. “Yes, of course, two versus two, but what to do with the third? You have no loyalty to either side, perhaps you can just be added obstacles. More threats to overcome. That’s it. The last demigod standing win. The others will die gloriously!”

Thor felt a new wave of competitive urges flow through him. He was glad for their companions' foresight, and their decision to not send in any rivaling parties.

“Look, lady, we’re not going to go all Hunger Games on each other. Isn’t going to happen.” Thor was not sure what the boy meant with ‘hunger games’ but he assumed it was another reference that would apply well. He really should take some time to refamiliarize with Midgard.

“But you will win a fabulous honor!” Nike reached into a basket at her side and produced a wreath of thick green laurels. “This crown of leaves could be yours! You can wear it on your head! Think of the glory!”

“Leo’s right,” Frank said, though his eyes were fixed on the wreath. “We don’t fight each other. We fight the giants. You should help us.”

“Very well!” The goddess raised the laurel wreath in one hand and her spear in the other.

The group exchanged confused glances.

“Uh...does that mean you’ll join us?” Percy asked. “You’ll help us fight the giants?”

“That will be part of the prize,” Nike said. “Whoever wins, I will consider you an ally. We will fight the giants together, and I will bestow victory upon you. But there can only be one winner. The others must be defeated, killed, destroyed utterly. So what will it be, demigods? Will you succeed in your quest, or will you cling to your namby-pamby ideas of friendship and everybody wins participation awards?”

Percy uncapped his pen. Thor almost thought that he was going to turn on his friends, he was readying himself to intervene when the demigod spoke next.

“What if we fight you instead?” he asked, pointing his blade at Nike.

“Ha!” Nike’s eyes gleamed. “If you refuse to fight each other, you shall be persuaded!”

Nike spread her golden wings. Four metal feathers fluttered down, two on either side of the chariot. They grew while they fell, sprouting arms and legs until they reached the ground as four metal replicas of the goddess, armed with a golden spear and a bronze laurel wreath, which reminded Thor more of a barbed discus then he would prefer.

“To the stadium!” the goddess cried. “You have five minutes to prepare. Then blood shall be spilled!”

“Run!” Nike bellowed. “To the stadium with you, or my Nikai will kill you where you stand!”

The metallic creatures extended their jaws and released a horrid sound, before shaking their spear and charging the group.

Thor decided that he would follow his companions to the stadium. They needed a plan to subdue the goddess. Clearly, their diplomatic efforts had not achieved the desired results.

The metal women led them in a northeastern direction through the ruins. Luckily, the mortals had disappeared, most likely a combination of Nike’s power and the Mist.

“There!” Frank sprinted toward a kind of trench between two earthen walls with a stone archway above. “That’s the entrance to the old Olympic stadium. It’s called the crypt!”

“Not a good name!” Leo yelled.

“Why are we going there?” Percy gasped. “If that’s where she wants us-”

He was cut off by another scream from the Nikai, obviously deciding that they should just go to the stadium.

When they reached the arch, Hazel yelled, “Hold it!”

The group ground to a halt, catching their breath. Frank peered back the way they’d come. “I don’t see them anymore. They disappeared.”

“Did they give up?” Percy asked hopefully.

Leo scanned the ruins. “Nah. They just herded us where they wanted us. What were those things, anyway? The Nikettes, I mean.”

“Nikettes?” Frank scratched his head. “I think it was Nikai, plural, like victories. ”

“Yes.” Hazel looked deep in thought, running her hands along the stone archway. “In some legends, Nike had an army of little victories she could send all over the world to do her bidding.”

“Like Santa’s elves,” Percy said. “Except evil. And metal. And really loud.”

Hazel pressed her fingers against the arch, as if taking its pulse. Beyond the narrow tunnel, the earthen walls opened into a long field with gently rising slopes on either side, like seating for spectators.

Thor guessed that it was most likely used as an open-air-stadium during the days of ancient Greece.

“Ghosts linger in this place,” Hazel murmured. “A lot of pain is embedded in these stones.” “Please tell me you have a plan,” Leo said. “Preferably one that doesn’t involve embedding my pain in the stones.”

Hazel’s eyes were stormy and distant. Like she was peering into a different layer of reality. “This was the players’ entrance. Nike said we have five minutes to prepare. Then she’ll expect us to pass under this archway and begin the games. We won’t be allowed to leave that field until at least three of us are dead,” she said, gesturing to the four demigods before continuing, “Probably the two of you as well.”

Percy leaned on his sword. “I’m pretty sure deathmatches weren’t an Olympic sport.”

“Well, they are today,” Hazel warned. “But I might be able to give us an edge. When we pass through, I could raise some obstacles on the field - hiding places to buy us some time.”

Frank frowned. “You mean like on the Field of Mars - trenches, tunnels, that kind of thing? You can do that with the Mist?”

“I think so,” Hazel said. “Nike would probably like to see an obstacle course. I can play her expectations against her. But it would be more than that. I can use any subterranean gateway - even this arch - to access the Labyrinth. I can raise part of the Labyrinth to the surface.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Percy made a time-out sign. “The Labyrinth is bad, it was designed to kill. We discussed this remember, you can walk 10 feet in one direction and never find the way back to the surface.”

“Hazel, he’s right.” Leo agreed with Percy. “I mean, I know you’re good with magic. But we’ve already got four screaming Nikettes to worry about-”

“You’ll have to trust me,” Hazel interrupted him. “We’ve only got a couple of minutes now. When we pass through the arch, I can at least manipulate the playing field to our advantage.”

“What’s our strategy? I assume all of you felt how powerful Nike’s compulsions were,” The Captain asked, “She will try to turn us against each other, even our own teams.”

“He’s right,” Frank said, “If she’s sending out those vibes to all the Greeks and Romans, there’s no way we’ll be able to prevent a war. We’ve got to get her under control.”

“I may be able to subdue her, at least for a short time, but we need a way to keep her contained,” Thor said.

“And how do we do that?” Percy asked. “Bonk her on the head and stuff her in a sack?”

“Actually,” Leo said, “you’re not far off. Uncle Leo brought some toys for all you good little demigods. And maybe some Avengers if they ask nicely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I’m late with this chapter, I really was planning on having it up yesterday, but I honestly forgot about it until about 21:00 (9 PM), which would have resulted in a really rushed chapter.
> 
> I was actually hoping to finish Olympia in this chapter, but it’s already getting quite long for the usual chapter length of this story, so I decided to cut it here.
> 
> I have a question for you guys, I have mainly been using Avengers-POV since the start of Blood of Olympus, since we already know what most of the demigods think in the books. Do you want me to continue it like that, or should I also use Demigod-POV for this part of the story. When BoO is done, I’ll definitely go back to everyone getting their own perspective, since there is no main perspective that is already used in the MCU.
> 
> I thought it would be fun to have the narration be a little more formal and in line with the Thor from The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron when I wrote his perspective, but please let me know what you think about it.
> 
> Thor was also a little more formal than usual in this chapter. That’s because he is addressing a potentially hostile goddess. He doesn’t want to anger her, and he probably learned how to do this from Odin. I personally dislike it when Thor using Shakespearean English in stories. He may do so in the comics (I don’t really read those, so I have no idea about that), but in the movies, he is at most just more formal than the other characters when it comes to language.
> 
> Someone asked if I have a schedule, I don’t but I try to stick to at least one chapter per week, which I haven’t been able to stick to for the last few weeks, sorry for that. But I am done with my exams now, so it should be doable from here on out. (at least until school starts up again)
> 
> Please let me know what you think, it’s a great motivator. Seriously, even if you don’t have anything to say I like seeing your thoughts, which includes constructive criticism.


	13. Team Deathmatch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

Leo had been explaining how his Archimedes spheres worked – and more importantly, how to avoid dying while using one – when Nike returned to the arena. Trumpets sounded around the stadium, and the Nikai marched out in front of her chariot.

The goddess didn’t waste any time on pleasantries or introductions – probably because there was no-one else there – and just shouted “Begin!”

The six shared one last look before going through the different archways that lead to the stadium. The moment Steve entered the arena, Walls and trenches appeared around the arena. He and Thor jumped into one of the trenches and surveyed the field. He could see that the greek team was doing the same, while he heard Frank yell “Die Graecus scum,” on their other side, which was followed by an arrow that shot over the field, completely missing any of the other teams.

Apparently, Nike noticed his lack of conviction, if her shout of “Kill like you mean it!” was any indication. After witnessing this little display, the two Avengers joined In on the fight. Steve threw one of the grenades simply labeled as ‘Fun’ in the direction of the Romans. Just before it hit, it exploded into a shower of confetti. This was mixed with the popcorn grenade that Percy had thrown moments before.

“Oh no,” Hazel cried, “Popcorn and confetti! Our fatal weaknesses!”

While they put on their show, Steve and Thor started moving through the Labyrinth. Steve could understand Percy’s reluctance at introducing the maze into the arena. The walls and even floors of the structure seemed to change by themselves, making it impossible to keep track of their location relative to the others.

He could hear Nike shouting again, denying the lethality of their popcorn-confetti combination. By the sound of her wheels, Steve guessed that she was circling the arena, while another grenade exploded in the distance, this one sounding decidedly more dangerous than the previous ones.

“Better,” Nike called out, “But where is your aim? Don’t you want this circlet of leaves?”

They turned another corner before grinding to a halt. One of the Nikai could be seen walking through the Labyrinth, which showed that Hazel’s tactics of divide and conquer were working. Steve was about to throw his shield at it when Mjölnir left Thor’s hand. The Nikai was completely destroyed on impact. Its head was missing and the body was crushed.

“Foul!” Nike cried from outside the maze, which shifted to have her chariot coming straight for them. “You don’t attack the Nikai unless you wish to die!”

Luckily, a trench appeared in her path, which allowed the Avengers to get behind cover. Steve could hear a growl, before the crunching of metal in the distance. “No!” Nike screamed again. “No, no, no! Your lives are forfeit! Nikai, attack!”

The walls shifted again, allowing them to escape the enraged goddess. “That’s two down,” Steve said, “We should get ready to engage her when the other two are taken out.”

A whipped cream grenade exploded above them. “That’s the signal, one to go,” Steve said.

The moments these words left his mouth, Hazel’s cried out in pain, and the walls around them disappeared.

Steve could see Frank a short distance away from them firing flaming arrows at Nike, who insulted him while trying to find a path towards him.

Hazel was closeby, about 20 feet away. The last of the Nikai had snuck up on her. She was about to be overpowered when Steve’s shield sliced through the metal woman, cutting it in half.

“I’ll go help her, you take out Nike,” Steve said, before rushing over to Hazel.

On his left, he could see Percy doing the same, while Leo started distracting the goddess.

“Hey!” he shouted, “I want a participation award!”

This immediately got the goddess’s attention, and she steered her chariot towards the Latino boy while shouting that she would destroy him

When he reached hazel, it seemed like the Nikai had just barely managed to hit her leg. Luckily, Hazel had succeeded in executing her part of the plan.

Meanwhile, Leo had thrown another Archimedes sphere towards the incoming goddess, while shouting “Percy, operation water balloon,” after which Percy promptly activated it causing a burst of water to erupt from under the chariot. The chariot flipped from the force behind the geyser underneath it, sending it flying with horses, carriage, goddess, and all.

Thor was on her before she could recover, grabbing her hands and pushing them behind her back before Leo threw another sphere towards them. A Celestial Bronze net shot out of it, Thor getting out of the way just before it hit the Nike.

Just like his father had done with Zeus millennia before, Leo had now captured Nike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this might be a bit of a shorter/weaker chapter, but despite the start of the vacation, I’ve still had a pretty busy week, my dad has turned 50 on Saturday (and my aunt turned 39, and my great-aunt 80), which meant that despite corona, it was still a lot of work to arrange a party (we took precautions, and luckily the worst has passed here, for now at least), but that did mean that I had less time than I had hoped to write this.
> 
> It seems like people enjoy reading from the Avengers POV, so I’ll keep doing that for the moment. Hope that you had a good week and have a nice start of your vacation. I should have the next chapter done in a week, but knowing me, anything could happen.


	14. Gotta Catch 'Em All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

Sam was starting to get a strong dislike for the statue that they had to move halfway around the world.

He was just starting to get to know the group that he was supposed to help - and also discussing their allies and what they planned on doing when they arrived at their destination - when the satyr had been possessed by the Earth Mother.

After a short talk, Gaea summoned the spirits of Vesuvius victims. They looked like the shells that were displayed in the museum at the entrance to Pompeii, but whatever they were, Nico, a child of Hades had been unable to control them.

The ensuing battle was one great blur to Sam. Hedge had been knocked out, metal dogs had attacked the ghosts, Nico had summoned more Roman zombies. Sam had taken one of the guns in his bag and just started shooting at the shells, and while the bullets seemed to affect the ghosts, more just kept rising up from the ground.

They were about to be overwhelmed when he heard Nico call out to them. “Guys, we’re leaving!” a glance in his direction showed that the boy had harnessed himself to the statue, carrying the unconscious Hedge in his arms. He was starting the flicker, which probably signaled his imminent departure.

“Come on girl,” he shouted at Reyna, “Our ride is about to go!”

He and Reyna had just reached Nico just in time clasping his hands before disappearing into the shadows.

* * *

The Argo II was currently anchored about a quarter-mile out from the shore of the town of Pylos. Frank and Piper were out, looking for poison, and Frank’s relatives.

After they had captured Nike, the goddess had revealed that one of those present would die in the coming battle with Gaea. She had also told them about the physician’s cure. Which, if Tony understood their explanation correctly, provided someone the opportunity to cheat death.

The goddess was – perhaps understandably – unwilling to help them further, but before she clamped up, she’d told them about the ingredients that they’d need. The poison of Pylos, the heartbeat of a chained god in Sparta, and the curse of Delos.

Right now, Tony was in the workshop/engine room with Leo. The two of them were looking into either an alternative or a solution to the demigods' problems with long-distance communication that didn’t involve throwing a coin into a rainbow.

From what he had gathered, monsters were able to detect and follow radiowaves to their source when a demigod used a cellphone. Like it left a specific signature for them to track. He’d also done some tests with the son of Hephaestus after Annabeth told him that this signature could be blocked when it was shielded by enough Celestial Bronze or Imperial Gold, which a large part of the ship was made of – that and the fact that he was confident that they could hold off any monster that did pick up on the signal, at least until Frank and Piper returned from their little stroll.

What he’d found was definitely interesting. When Leo used the phone to contact him, he’d had F.R.I.D.A.Y. scan for any unusual data on both ends of the connection. And there was definitely something there. Whenever Leo called him, there seemed to be an added frequency that was sent out from the phone, further testing with Percy and Hazel had shown that this frequency was the same for them as well.

This would have been easy to fix if it was the only problem, but unfortunately, there was also some other type of signal that he hadn’t been able to identify so far.

While F.R.I.D.A.Y. was looking into that problem, he was modifying one of their earpieces so that it would send out a wave that would cause destructive interference when this frequency was detected. This way, that part of the signal would be blocked, which just left them with the problem of the unidentified energy signature that was sent out when the phone was being used.

He’d just finished programming the device when he got a notification on his watch.

“Come here kid, we’ve got something,” he said while motioning for Leo to come over. His focus remained on the holograms that were now floating over his wrist. “What have you got for us F.R.I.D.A.Y?” he asked while looking over the data.

“I was able to identify the energy that was emitted during the tests. It bears a close resemblance to the energy that both the Tesseract and Mind Stone emit, though the intensity is much greater.”

“So monsters can track the energy that is sent out from the Infinity Stones?” Tony asked her.

“Since the signature is much larger during the call, it is unlikely that the Mind Stone can be used to find us.”

“Alright, that’s something at least, and we should be able to make something to hide the signature from the hungry chicken ladies and their friends.”

* * *

Kick, kick, lean back, jab, block an incoming knife, roll, kick, duck, three punches to the ribs, block, block, low kick, widow bite, block again.

Natasha grinned when she saw Annabeth coming towards her again. The two of them, together with Wanda and Percy, had decided to use their time for a 2v2 sparring match.

There was no doubt in her mind that the demigods could fight, but some extra training could never hurt. Especially since they had only worked together for such a limited amount of time. Currently, Wanda was holding off Percy, while she was going up against the daughter of Athena.

The two groups were pretty evenly matched, with Wanda’s powers being evened out by Percy’s experience.

The fight ended quite suddenly when Natasha flipped Annabeth to the ground and pinned her there, while Percy knocked Wanda to the ground and pointed his sword at her throat.

“Good job guys,” Nat said while helping Annabeth up from the floor, “You should try to improve your guard on your left side.”

“Thanks,” the girl replied, before looking over Natasha’s shoulder. “Hey, they’re back,”

Natasha turned around to see the two demigods coming towards them.

oo0OO0oo

The group quickly gathered on the deck for a debriefing.

“Why are we meeting here instead of in the mess hall?” Rhodey asked when he arrived.

“Percy wants to catch the shiny Gyarados that’s swimming around the boat,” Tony answered him, which just confused his friend further.

“What?!” he asked, looking at the boy in question for answers.

“There’s a really big, _really_ red, but probably not cherry-flavored sea serpent that started circling the ship a couple minutes ago,” Percy explained.

“Anyway,” Frank said, “according to my Pylos cousins, the chained god we’re looking for in Sparta is my dad...uh, I mean Ares, not Mars. Apparently, the Spartans kept a statue of him chained up in their city so the spirit of war would never leave them.”

“ _Ookay_ ,” Leo said, drawing out the word. “The Spartans were freaks. Of course, we’ve got Victory tied up downstairs, so I guess we can’t talk.”

“So I guess our next stop is Sparta then, Stark said, “Though I fail to see how the heartbeat of a statue is gonna keep someone from dying, or how a statue has a heartbeat in the first place.”

oo0OO0oo

“So what do you think of our new friends?” Natasha asked Steve when she walked into the kitchen He was currently making dinner for the crew.

“They’re alright,” he answered her, going back to the pizza he was preparing, “Don’t like the fact that they’re so young, but that can’t be helped. What about you?”

“Well they can hold their own,” she said while passing him the cheese. “Their hearts are in the right place, and they’re definitely loyal to each other.”

Steve turned towards her now “What are you thinking?” he asked her.

Natasha wasn’t sure how to answer him. “I’ve been thinking about expanding the team. We got the Maximoffs and Vision, and it seems like Rhodes is planning to stick around.”

“Sam probably wouldn’t mind, we’ve been working together for the last year anyway,” Steve replied.

They had a slight pause in their conversation when Buford the Wonder Table came clattering by, shouting at whatever was in sight through its holographic satyr.

“Well that’s true, but I’ve got a feeling that we’re about to lose a couple of heavy hitters too,” Natasha said, “Bruce took off after Sokovia, and we still haven’t heard anything from him since. And I think Thor is talking about going off to find more information about the Infinity Stones when this is over. Finding some more recruits couldn’t hurt.”

“Well I think they’ve proven themselves if that’s what you’re asking, but I think that’s not the problem here is it?”

“No, it isn’t.” she confirmed, “I just don’t know if they’d want to. Especially since they’ve kept themselves hidden from the rest of the world for so long.”

“I guess we’ll just have to ask them when this is all over.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed an explanation for how monsters can track demigods when they use cellphones, and since (to my knowledge), Rick has never given one, I made up my own. Please don’t look at it too harshly though, (or if you do, tell me what’s wrong with it and I’ll try to update it or at least improve it if it comes up again) I’m pretty sure that the solution for the radiowaves is plausible, but I don’t know nearly enough about either the Infinity Stones or physics to say the same about the energy signature.
> 
> Do you think I got the sparring match right? I think that Nat would beat Annabeth, while Percy could probably win from Wanda (at least at this point in the timeline) as I mentioned in the story, Wanda is a lot more powerful than he is (if you ask me, she’s one of the most powerful Avengers, if a bit of a glass cannon), but Percy has experience on his side. During Age of Ultron, Wanda never showed any real fighting skills (neither did Pietro really), so if she goes up against an opponent that is a lot more skilled than she is, especially when she doesn’t know how to use her powers that well, (again, aside from some small parts of the battle in Sokovia, she doesn’t use her powers that well while in a fight, at least not in comparison to later movies), so I think Percy could beat her.


	15. You Shall Not Pass!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. (Some important notes on the end of the chapter).

The explosion woke Clint immediately. He sat up barely a second later, his bow ready and an arrow on the string. When he didn’t see any danger in the immediate vicinity, he got up from his bed and started walking through the hallway, going towards the sound of voices in the mess hall.

Water flooded the hallway after some more rumbling from the walls. He could see Leo standing in a door opening waving a wrench.

“Man, did you _have_ to destroy the plumbing?” He said to Percy, who chose to ignore him.

Seeing that there was no actual danger aside from the angry demigod, Clint decided to put his bow away.

“We’ll be all right,” Annabeth said, “Besides, we won’t be alone, Tony is coming with us remember. Piper saw the three of us in her vision, so that’s what’s going to happen.”

The last part of her sentence caused Percy to shift his glare to Piper. “And this Mimas dude? I’m guessing he’s a giant?”

“Probably,” she said. “Porphyrion called him ‘our brother’.”

“And a bronze statue surrounded by fire,” Percy said. “And those...other things you mentioned. Mackies?”

“Makhai,” Piper said. “I think the word means battles in Greek, but I don’t know how that applies, exactly.”

“Exactly,” Percy shouted, “We have no idea what’s down there. I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not,” Annabeth said calmly, putting a hand on his arm to offer comfort. “Besides the fact that it’s never a good thing to try and prevent the future, the giants want our blood. The _last_ thing we need is to send a half-blood boy and girl down there together. We’d only help them in completing their big sacrifice.”

“Why would it be bad to go against your future? I don’t remember ancient Greece being against free will.” Clint interrupted them.

“Well it didn’t really work out for Kronos, did it?” Annabeth turned to look at him.

“Guess you got a point. Don’t mind me, just curious.” Clint said.

“Anyway, I’ll just get Jason,” Percy continued the conversation, “And the two of us-”

“Seaweed Brain, are you implying that two boys can handle this better than two girls?”

“No. I mean… no. But- ”

Annabeth kissed him. “We’ll be back before you know it.” She said, before walking upstairs.

“Well this was pretty entertaining, but I don’t think it would be good if the boat filled up with toilet water. Even if it does fly.”

“Yeah, alright, I’m on it.”

* * *

The sun had just reached it’s highest point when the group of three reached the ruins of the Spartan Acropolis. They’d just finished scouting the city, which consisted of a bunch of low, white houses that were spread out over a plain. On Annabeth’s insistence, they had checked all the museums in town. Including the national olives museum for some reason.

He’d decided to leave the armor on the Argo II for now. He’d be able to call it to him in moments when he needed it, and it would probably be for the better not to draw attention to themselves right now. Even without it, he had seen some people shoot glances his way, obviously recognizing him.

“Nothing like the movies, is it McLean?” Tony asked Piper with a grin.

“Ugh, don’t remind me, please.” She groaned.

“What? Not a fan of your dad?” He asked her, genuinely surprised by her reaction.

“My dad’s fine. It’s just the movies that I don’t like. Would you want the most famous pictures of your dad to be the shirtless ones?”

“Yeah, I can see how that would put a damper on things.” He said, “Anyway, you’d think that if there was a thirty-foot-tall giant out here, we would have found him by now.”

Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by a roaring sound ahead. One of the pits in the field spewed out a geyser of flames at least 30 feet in the air.

“What the Hades?” Piper asked.

“Well, it may not be a giant, but I think we should check out the other thirty-feet tall phenomenon over there,” Tony said.

oo0OO0oo

The fire-spewing pit was part of a set of three holes. They lay side by side and had a diameter of about 2 feet.

Tony had called his newly modified suit to him before they walked over, and was now wearing the red and gold armor as he was studying the pits.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. can you find a pattern for me?” he asked the AI. As far as he could tell, the flames shot out of the pits at random intervals. There didn’t seem to be any pattern in the color or height either. Annabeth seemed to try to figure out the same thing to his left.

“Did we activate them somehow?” Piper asked.

“Probably,” he answered her when Annabeth didn’t. “Don’t see how we could have though. Unless it reacts to daddy issues”

“I told you, I don’t have a problem with my dad,” Piper replied, glaring at him.

“There doesn’t seem to be any logical order that the flames follow.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. answered his question.

Annabeth seemed annoyed when the next flame erupted from the ground

“That’s not right. It’s inconsistent. It has to follow some kind of logic,” she said.

“Chase, if F.R.I.D.A.Y. can’t find a pattern in this, it’s unlikely that you will be able to do it,” Tony said, hoping to reduce some of the frustration the girl felt.

“It isn’t rational,” Piper spoke up. “It’s emotional.”

“How can fire pits be emotional?”

“Yeah, I agree with her on this one,” Tony said.

Piper held her hand over the pit on the right. Instantly, flames leaped up. Piper barely had time to withdraw her fingers. Her nails steamed.

“Piper!” Annabeth ran over. “What were you thinking ?”

“I wasn’t. I was feeling. What we want is down there. These pits are the way in. I’ll have to jump.”

“Let me stop you right there kid. If anyone is gonna jump in one of these holes it’s me.” Tony said, “There may not be any logic behind these things, but the armor should be able to hold it. Better chance than you would have anyway.”

“Have both of you lost your mind? What if you get stuck in the tube? Your armor might be able to withstand the heat for a while, but it still has limits! You’d be boiling alive in there!”

“True, but we’ll have to go down somehow, and unless you want to use a shovel, I don’t really see any other option,” Tony replied calmly, walking closer to the middle hole and jumping in before she could react.

For about half a second, all Tony could see was the side of the pit, before a room opened up beneath him. He moved to the side just before hitting the floor, where he landed right next to a bronze dragon, which was flanked by two others underneath the other pits.

Their heads were turned towards the roof of the room, their steaming mouths were open, and every few seconds, one of them would spew fire.

He stood still for a moment, waiting to see if the dragons would react to his presence. When they didn’t he made F.R.I.D.A.Y. scan the dragons, both to study them later and to see if he could safely disable them, before decapitating them with his new Imperial Gold blades.

“Tony! Are you all right down there?” he heard Annabeth shout from above.

“Yeah, give me a second to check the room.” He replied, before having F.R.I.D.A.Y. perform another scan, this one a combination of infrared and sonar to point out both the structure of the room and any incoming threats.

He was in a round chamber, the only light coming from the three holes in the ceiling and his arc reactor. The walls were made of rough stone blocks and covered in ancient Greek markings.

On the far end of the room, a bronze human-sized statue stood chained to both the walls and the floor. There was a dark doorway on either side of the statue. Both were easily ten feet tall, and a gruesome stone face was carved into the arch above.

When he was finished scanning the room he called out to the girls above “Okay, you can come down, the room is clear. You might want to bring a rope though if you don’t want me to have to carry you up.”

“On it!”

A few minutes later, a rope dropped down and the two demigods climbed down into the room. When they reached the bottom, Piper nudged one of the decapitated dragon heads with her foot. “I’m guessing these are the dragons of Ares. That’s one of his sacred animals, right?”

“They are,” The older girl confirmed. “And there’s the chained god himself. Where do you think those doorways-”

Piper held up her hand to silence her friend. “Do you hear that?”

The sound was like a drumbeat with a metallic echo. Which really left Tony no choice in what to do next.

“They have taken the bridge… and the Second Hall.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re quoting the Lord of the Rings right now?” Annabeth asked him exasperated.

“Well, that depends on whether they have a cave troll or not.” He replied amused at her tone.

“It’s coming from inside the statue,” Piper said, obviously deciding to ignore the other two. “The heartbeat of the chained god.”

Annabeth unsheathed her bone sword. “I- I don’t like this. We need to leave.”

Tony didn’t disagree with that statement. Something about this place put him on edge. It was making his skin crawl and somehow reminded him of the wormhole.

“The shrine is ramping up our emotions,” Piper said. “It’s like being around my mom, except this place radiates fear, not love.

Annabeth scanned the walls. “Okay...we need a plan to get the statue out. I think you should be able to-”

“Wait.” Piper glanced at the snarling stone faces above the doorways. “A shrine that radiates fear. Ares had two divine sons, didn’t he?”

“Ph-Phobos and Deimos.” Annabeth shivered. “Panic and Fear. Percy met them once in Staten Island.”

“That sounds like an interesting tale,” Tony said to distract himself from his own incoming panic attack.

“I think those are their faces above the doors.” Piper stated, “This place isn’t just a shrine to Ares. It’s a temple of fear.”

Deep laughter echoed through the chamber. From the shadows on their right, a giant appeared. As if he literally stepped out of the walls. Which he might have actually done since he wasn’t in the room when Tony first scanned it.

He was hauling around a massive sledgehammer. His armor, skin, and scaled legs were all charcoal-colored, and copper wire and circuit boards were braided into his hair.

“Very good, child of Aphrodite.” The giant smiled. “This is indeed the Temple of Fear. And I am here to make you believers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to leave it at a bit of a cliffhanger, but I thought this was the most natural place to end it.
> 
> I don’t know if you’d noticed yet, but I’ve started adding ‘oo0OO0oo’ since the last chapter. These should be seen as more of a small time-skip, instead of a P.O.V. change, while the regular line breaks mean the P.O.V. has changed. I thought this would help make things clearer and looked better than just having a blank line between the two sections.
> 
> I chose to bring Tony down with them because I haven’t given him much to do besides being tech support. I was originally planning to make the two of them go on their own, but I already did that with Frank and Piper last time, so I decided against doing that here.
> 
> I gave Tony his own Detective Mode like from the Arkham games, though I imagine it more like a Spider-Man PS4, in the way that it only shows people, and is more like an overlay than a replacement like what you see in the games or in the Dark Knight. You can sort of see something like this in the first Iron Man. Just before Tony commences his first flight, you can see J.A.R.V.I.S. giving an outline of the garage entrance, which is how I imagine this to look.
> 
> I know that the quote from Fellowship comes before the drums, but I couldn’t help myself.
> 
> Please review to let me know what you think.


	16. Fear Is Not Just A Path To The Dark Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own any of this. I was on vacation for the past week, so some reviews haven’t been answered yet, my response will come after the chapter.

The crew members of the Argo II that weren’t part of the mission to Sparta had gathered in the common room. They were there for two reasons, the main one was to get their lunch, the other one was to gain some insight into the status of their objective.

This is great food, who made it?” Thor asked through the tofu taco’s that were still in his mouth.

“Well that would be Chef Leo and his magical table,” Leo answered the god of thunder. “Apparently tofu and taco shells classify as essential parts of a workshop according to magical toolbelts.”

“Do we have anything on Banner yet?” Steve asked both Natasha and Clint. The group still hadn’t heard anything from their friend since he flew off in the Avengers Quinjet.

“No, Fury says his people can’t locate the Quinjet when Stark’s stealth tech is enabled,” Natasha answered

“Alright, keep me posted. I just got word from Sam, he found your friends with the statue.” Steve told the demigods, “He says they left Portugal last night, after being attacked by a group of werewolves. They’re on a cruise ship somewhere in the Atlantic right now.”

“That’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear,” Clint said.

“Where are we going after leaving Sparta?” Pietro asked while getting another taco.

“We still need the curse of Delos for the Physician’s Cure, so I guess we’ll be heading there after this,” Hazel replied.

“That’s the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo right? Didn’t Juno say they might be able to help us?” Natasha asked the group.

“Aye, she did.” Thor answered her, “I’m sure they’ll be willing to help us. Artemis was always quite reasonable when our paths crossed, her brother will probably be less helpful, however.”

“How so?” Steve asked him.

“Well as Stark would say, he can be a bit of a dick.”

* * *

Tony knew what fear was like. He was very familiar with how debilitating it could be.

This giant, however, was something else entirely. All of his worst memories and nightmares flashed before his eyes. It was as if he was suddenly back over through the wormhole, or like he was stuck in the moment of Peppers fall at the Norco. There were flashes of his time back in Afghanistan with Yinsen.

There were also just moments of great pain like the moment he found out his parents had died; the feeling of helplessness caused by his inability to find a replacement for the palladium core.

The very recent memory of Wanda’s vision; the guilt he felt over Ultron; the loss of J.A.R.V.I.S.

Tony was completely paralyzed from the memories that were being surfaced by the giant. He was vaguely aware of the giant coming towards them, raising his hammer to crush them.

He could feel F.R.I.D.A.Y. activating the armor’s flight systems in the last moment, grabbing both the girls that were frozen next to him and evading the incoming attack.

“Boss, you need to snap out of it!” The AI called out to him in his helmet, starting to break through the wall of fear that the giant had built. Piper was calling out to Annabeth next to him, telling her to get up as well.

He could see the two girls from the corner of his eyes. Piper was encouraging the daughter of Athena. She then turned to him.

“Tony, you need to wake up. We’ll get out of this, alright?” she said while trying to shake the armor. This combined with F.R.I.D.A.Y. still trying to snap him out of his stupor finally got him moving again.

The giant laughed. “A child of Aphrodite leading a child of Athena and a mortal man! Now I’ve seen everything. How would you defeat me, girl? With makeup and fashion tips?”

The giant was slowly walking towards them. Obviously weighed down by his hammer.

“Guys, you need to trust me,” Piper told them.

“A- a plan,” Annabeth stammered. “I go left. You go right, Stark tries to keep him busy here. If we-”

“Annabeth, no plans.” “W-what?”

“No plans. Just follow me!”

The giant swung his hammer again, but they could dodge it with ease. Piper leaped forward and slashed her sword across the back of the giant’s knee, while Tony shot him with a blast from his repulsors. As the giant bellowed in outrage, Piper led the others into the nearest tunnel. Immediately they were engulfed in total darkness.

“Fools!” The giant bellowed behind them, “That is the wrong way!”

“Keep moving,” Piper told Tony and Annabeth, ignoring the giant. “It’s fine. Come on.”

“How do you know that,” Tony asked her when they walked into a dark cavern. Even his night vision didn’t show him anything but the darkness that surrounded them.

“Fri, give me a scan of the room.”

“Results are inconclusive, boss.” The AI told him a few seconds after his command.

“It’s like the House of Night,” Annabeth told them. “We should close our eyes.”

“No!” Piper replied. “Keep them open. We can’t try to hide.”

The giant’s voice came from somewhere in front of them. “Lost forever. Swallowed by the darkness.” Annabeth froze in place, which caused Tony and Piper to stop as well.

“Why did we just plunge in?” Annabeth demanded. “We’re lost. We did what he wanted us to! We should have bided our time, talked to the enemy, figured out a plan. That always works!”

“Annabeth, I never ignore your advice.” Piper kept her voice soothing. “But this time I have to. We can’t defeat this place with reason. You can’t think your way out of your emotions.”

The giant’s laughter echoed like a detonating depth charge. “Despair, Annabeth Chase! I am Mimas, born to slay Hephaestus. I am the breaker of plans, the destroyer of the well-oiled machines. Nothing goes right in my presence. Maps are misread. Devices break. Data is lost. The finest minds turn to mush!”

“Sure thing, Clumsy Smurf,” Tony told the giant, “I’ve had my fill of people that try to use my designs against me. Didn’t work out so well for them.”

“The mortal speaks. Tell me, why do these half-bloods work with you?” Mimas asked Tony.

He heard the air move just in time to push the demigods out of the way of the incoming hammer.

A loud crash sounded behind them. They had somehow made their way back into the circular room that they started in. Mimas stood close to them, currently trying to free his hammer from the floor.

“Probably my shining personality. Maybe you should ask them.” He answered the giant while firing some more repulsor blast at the giant. Piper followed his example and drove her blade into the giant's thigh.

The giant screamed in pain and let go of his hammer, turning around slowly to look at his opponents. The wounds that they inflicted were already closing.

Piper and Annabeth ducked behind the statue of Ares to avoid the attacks, while Tony took to the air for added mobility. As he did this, he extended the blades that were hidden in the armor.

“You cannot defeat me,” The giant growled. “In the last war, it took two gods to bring me down. I was born to kill Hephaestus, and would have done so if Ares hadn’t ganged up on me as well! You should have stayed paralyzed in your fear. Your death would’ve been quicker.”

Tony dodged one of the giant’s fists and flew around him, using his blades to create two large cuts on Mimas back, before flying between the giant’s legs to avoid his retaliation. When he landed about twenty feet away from the giant, he saw that Piper had emerged from behind the statue.

“This temple,” she said. “The Spartans didn’t chain Ares because they wanted his spirit to stay in their city.”

“You think not?” The giant’s eyes glittered with amusement. He wrapped his hands around his sledgehammer and pulled it from the floor.

“This is the temple of my brothers, Deimos and Phobos.” Piper’s voice shook in fear, “The Spartans came here to prepare for battle, to face their fears. Ares was chained to remind them that war has consequences. His power - the spirits of battle, the makhai - should never be unleashed unless you understand how terrible they are, unless you’ve felt fear.”

“Great story, Snow White. What are we gonna do with it?” Tony asked.

“Yes, girl.” Mimas laughed. “A child of the love goddess wants to lecture me about war. What do you know of the makhai?”

“We’ll see.” Piper ran straight at the giant, unbalancing his stance. At the sight of her jagged blade coming at him, his eyes widened and he stumbled backward, cracking his head against the wall. A jagged fissure snaked upward in the stones. Dust rained from the ceiling.

“Girls, this place is about to collapse,” Tony warned, “A few more hits like that and we’re toast. We need to get out-“

“Don’t think about escape!” Piper ran toward their rope, which dangled from the ceiling. She leaped into the air and cut it.

“Piper, have you lost your mind?” Annabeth asked in horror.

“It’s a temple of fear remember,” Piper answered her, “We can’t use logic to survive here. We need to follow our emotions.”

The giant regained his senses before either of them could reply. “That hurt!” Mimas rubbed his head. “You realize you cannot kill me without the help of a god, and Ares is not here! The next time I face that blustering idiot, I will smash him to bits. I wouldn’t have had to fight him in the first place if that cowardly fool Damasen had done his job-”

Annabeth let loose a guttural cry at that name. “Do not insult Damasen!”

She ran at Mimas, who barely managed to parry her dragon-blade with the handle of his hammer. He tried to grab Annabeth and Piper lunged, slashing her blade across the side of the giant’s face.

“GAHHH!” Mimas staggered.

A severed pile of dreadlocks fell to the floor along with something else - a large fleshy thing lying in a pool of golden ichor.

“My ear!” Mimas wailed. Before he could recover, Piper pulled Annabeth into the second doorway. Tony landed a couple more hits on the giant before he followed them into the darkness.

“I will bring down this chamber!” the giant thundered. “The Earth Mother shall deliver me, but you shall be crushed!”

The floor shook. The sound of breaking stone echoed all around them.

“Piper, stop,” Annabeth begged. “How- how are you dealing with this? The fear, the anger-”

“Don’t try to control it. That’s what the temple is about. You have to accept the fear, adapt to it, ride it like the rapids on a river.”

“Piper, you need to stop,” Tony called out, “if we don’t do something soon, it doesn’t matter whether we accept our fears or not, because we’ll be buried alive. Trust me, it’s not a fun experience.”

“How would you even know that’s what we're supposed to do anyway?” Annabeth asked her friend.

“I don’t know it. I just feel it.”

Somewhere nearby, a wall crumbled with a sound like an artillery blast.

“You cut the rope,” Annabeth said. “We’re going to die down here!”

Piper cupped her friend’s face. She pulled Annabeth forward until their foreheads touched. “Fear can’t be reasoned with. Neither can hate. They’re like love. They’re almost identical emotions. That’s why Ares and Aphrodite like each other. Their twin sons - Fear and Panic - were spawned from both war and love.”

“But I don’t...this doesn’t make sense.”

“No,” Piper agreed. “Stop thinking about it. Just feel. ”

“I hate that.”

“I know. You can’t plan for feelings. Like with Percy, and your future - you can’t control every contingency. You have to accept that. Let it scare you. Trust that it’ll be okay anyway.”

Annabeth shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Then for right now, concentrate on revenge for Damasen. Revenge for Bob.”

A moment of silence. “I’m good now.”

“Good, because we still have Van Gogh out there,” Tony spoke up, “Do you have any more advice on how to deal with him?”

“Sure,” Piper replied, “We’re going to run out there together.”

“Alright, and then what?”

“I have no idea.”

Annabeth groaned, “Gods, I hate it when you lead.”

“I second that.”

To Tony’s surprise, Piper just laughed at their statements, before turning around and running back towards the main chamber.

They ended up right behind the giant. Both of the girls slashed one of his legs, bringing him to his knees. This allowed Tony to aim straight up with his blades, eliciting the loudest scream of pain that the giant had let out yet, and causing rocks to fall from the ceiling.

“Weak mortals!” Mimas struggled to stand. “No plan of yours can defeat me!”

“That’s good,” Piper said. “Because we don’t have a plan.”

She ran toward the statue of Ares. “Stark, Annabeth, keep our friend occupied!”

“Oh, he’s occupied!” Annabeth replied before delivering another cut to the giant’s legs.

Tony followed this up by shooting a repulsor into the giant’s face, directly followed by a cut to his stomach. He then flew around the giant to avoid one of his attacks, before using his wrist-mounted lasers to cut through the giant’s right arm, immediately cauterizing the wound. He then deployed flares to distract and disorient the giant.

The chamber shook again from the force of their attacks. Cracks appeared in the wall and more rocks continued to fall.

Everyone was suddenly distracted by flames shooting from the recently beheaded statue of Ares.

“No,” Mimas cried out, stretching out his recently amputated arm.

The flames started swirling around Piper, who stretched out her arms as if she was going to hug them.

They vanished a few seconds later, followed by the statue of Ares and the cornucopia that was at its base.

“Foolish girl!” Mimas charged her, Annabeth at his heels, and Tony flying in behind him. “The makhai have abandoned you!”

“Or maybe they’ve abandoned _you,_ ” Piper said.

Mimas tried to raised his hammer, using the burned stump to support the head, but he’d forgotten about Annabeth. She jabbed him in the thigh and the giant staggered forward, off-balance. Piper stepped in calmly and stabbed him in the gut. While Tony flew in high and cut through his throat.

Mimas grabbed at his throat and crashed face-first into the nearest doorway. He turned over just as the stone face of Panic cracked off the wall above him and toppled down on his head. The giant’s cry was cut short. His body went still. Then he disintegrated into a twenty-foot pile of ash.

“No true love kiss for him apparently,” Tony said, drawing some nervous laughs from his team members.

“What just happened?” Annabeth asked Piper.

“I’m not sure.”

“Piper, you were amazing, but those fiery spirits you released-”

“The makhai .”

“How does that help us find the cure we’re looking for?”

“I don’t know. They said I could summon them when the time comes. Maybe Artemis and Apollo can explain-”

A section of the wall calved like a glacier. Annabeth stumbled and almost slipped on the giant’s severed ear. “We need to get out of here.”

“I’m working on it,” Piper said.

“And, uh, I think this ear is your spoil of war.”

“Gross.”

“Would make a lovely shield.”

“Sure would,” Tony said, making a scan of both the ear and the monster-dust for Bruce to study later, “Well, you literally cut off your only escape, so unless you want me to carry the two of you out-“

He was interrupted by another wall collapsing behind him, “Alright, here we go, hop on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I mentioned at the start of this chapter, I was on vacation for the past week. Unfortunately for the story, the vacation went on for longer than I originally thought, so I didn’t have a chapter ready on Saturday (I already had last week's chapter finished before we went). I also had some trouble with getting Tony right. he’s my favorite character in the MCU, but he’s also one of the hardest for me to write, mainly because I’m not that fluent in pop culture references, or the humor that he uses. If you have any tips or ideas in that regard, I’d love to know them.
> 
> Up to this point, I’ve tried to keep everything about the layout of the Argo II as it is in canon. I’ll try to keep doing this as much as possible, but the ship was built for 8 crew members, and there are now twice as many people on board as was originally planned if you count Nike. This does mean, however, that I might alter the Argo II to fit the purposes of the story. Anything that I’ve done until now will be followed, so the Avengers don’t suddenly all have their own room, but I might add parts to the ships that weren’t there originally. To that end, I ask all of you to please accept these changes when they happen, this will make it much easier for me to keep the story going.
> 
> For those that were wondering, the Norco is the ship at the end of Iron Man 3. I think Tony would be affected very badly by the Spartan ruins. Maybe he didn’t go through Tartarus like Annabeth, but he went through a lot of trauma either way. Even before he was kidnapped, he had already gone through his parents’ death, which he clearly wasn’t over yet, as shown in Captain America: Civil War.  
> I also think that what happens underwater after the attack on Tony’s Malibu mansion would count as being buried alive.
> 
> I had originally planned for Tony to be the one to kill Mimas. I still had him deliver the final blow (if you don’t count the head crushing him), but made it more of a team effort than I planned. I did this for a couple of different reasons. The first one is to show that mortals and demigods are interchangeable when it comes to killing giants. I based this on the fact that it was probably never tested if mortals can kill giants, and that if it was, it might not have been with Imperial Gold or Celestial Bronze. The other reason is that Mimas is the ‘anti-Hephaestus, so I like the idea of the Iron Man Armor, which is probably the most advanced piece of technology in the MCU (barring Wakanda), being used to kill him. Especially since, if Tony was a half-blood, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would be a son of Hephaestus (though an argument could be made for Athena).
> 
> Now for those reviews:
> 
> People seemed to agree with my views on Percy being more powerful than Wanda. Most even went on to say that Percy would be more powerful at any time, not just right now. I don’t know if I agree with that part though.  
> One review even stated that Percy could destroy/flood the earth, or take on every single Avenger. I don’t know about that. He’s powerful, there’s no doubt about that, but he’s nowhere near that powerful in my opinion. Sure, he blew up Mt. Saint Helens in the Battle of the Labyrinth, but there’s a large difference between causing an eruption in one volcano and destroying the Earth. As to flooding it: No. He just can’t. I don’t think anyone besides Poseidon can do that
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought, and I’d really appreciate it if you could give me some tips about the characterization. That’s the part of the story that I have the most issues in getting right so far.


	17. A Group Therapy Session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own any of this. Replies to anonymous reviews in bottom notes. I have also (started) reviewing my old chapters and tried to improve some of them.

“I still don’t get it,” Hedge muttered as they roamed through the Buford Zippy Mart. “They named a whole town after Leo’s table?”

“I think the town was here first, Coach,” Nico answered him, drawing a laugh from Sam.

“What kind of table are you guys talking about?” he asked, confused as to why someone would give a name to a table.

“Leo found a walking magical table last Christmas. Named it Buford.” Nico replied, picking up a first aid kid from one of the shelves.

“Why does he need a walking table?” Sam questioned him further, grabbing some soda from a stand.

Nico grabbed a stack of paper before answering him, “He mainly uses him to store parts. Although I did hear that he had a problem with a couple of syncopators once, almost blew up Camp Half-Blood.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Sam asked Nico incredulously.

“No, apparently he pissed the table off and it ran away,” Nico answered, grinning a little when he hears Sam mutter about the ‘crazy things that Cap gets him into.’

oo0OO0oo

They arrived back at camp about 10 minutes later. The Athena Parthenos had landed at the historical marker of the Massacre of Buford.

After they left the cruise ship, Nico’s shadow travel had been pulled off course and landed them to Puerto Rico, where a group called the Hunters of Artemis had ambushed them and kidnapped Reyna.

They had told her that the Hunters were working together with the Amazons, which were led by her sister Hylla. They also gave her a tent and had hidden the Athena Parthenos under a camouflage net, which would hide it from their pursuers.

They then told her about Orion, the giant that was hunting them for Gaea.

Apparently, Orion used to be a part of Artemis’ hunting party during ancient times. He eventually fell in love with the virgin goddess but turned bitter after being rebuffed by her. He started hunting by himself more often, until one day, the goddess of the hunt returned to their camp, telling the other Hunters that Orion had been killed.

He had been driven to madness by her brother Apollo, given a bloodlust to kill all the beasts that roamed the Earth, killing thousands before he was finally stopped. His mother Gaea had summoned a scorpion to kill her son before he succeeded in his quest.

When he returned from Tartarus, he had grown to hate the Artemis, killing her Hunters in an attempt to hurt her.

Reyna and her sister had been ambushed by the giant before they could escape San Juan. They had used the age-old strategy of stalling, keeping him talking until reinforcements could arrive.

In the end, they had escaped the city while the Amazons and Hunters fought the giant so they could escape.

When they arrived, Reyna was sitting cross-legged before her tent, staring at the memorial of the massacre. It was a rectangular cairn – hundreds of stones piled in the shape of an oversized grave with a granite obelisk for a headstone. She’d been mostly silent since they fled San Juan two days before. Which was understandable, as they’d had no word from the Hunters or Amazons.

She looked up as they approached. “I figured it out.”

“What historical site this is?” Hedge asked. “Good, ’cause it’s been driving me crazy.”

“The Battle of Waxhaws,” she said.

“Ah, right…” Hedge nodded sagely. “That was a vicious little smackdown.”

“Are you sure?” Nico asked after taking another look around the site.

“Why do you ask?” Sam asked the son of Hades.

Nico took one last look around before turning towards him. “I can’t sense anything. On most old battlefields, there are a lot of restless spirits. Some because they lost their war. Others, like the ones in Pompeii, out of anger over their dead. But I don’t sense anything here.”

“To answer Nico’s question, yes I’m sure,” Reyna said. “It was in 1780. The American Revolution. Most of the Colonial leaders were Greek demigods. The British generals were Roman demigods.”

“Because England was like Rome back then,” Nico guessed. “A rising empire.”

Reyna picked up a crushed bouquet that was left at the memorial. “I think I know why we landed here. It’s my fault.”

“Ah, come on,” Hedge scoffed. “The Buford Zippy Mart isn’t anybody’s fault. Those things just happen.”

Reyna picked at the faded plastic flowers. “During the Revolution, four hundred Americans got overtaken here by British cavalry. The Colonial troops tried to surrender, but the British were out for blood. They massacred the Americans even after they threw down their weapons. Only a few survived.”

“I know that that’s horrible,” Sam said. “But why does that mean that it's your fault that we’re here?”

“The British commander was Banastre Tarleton.”

Hedge snorted. “I’ve heard of him. Crazy dude. They called him Benny the Butcher.”

“Yes…” Reyna took a shaky breath. “He was a son of Bellona.”

“Oh.” Nico looked around the memorial site again. He then sat next to Reyna before continuing. “So you think we were drawn here because you have some sort of connection to the ghosts. Like what happened in San Juan?”

Before they left Puerto Rico, a large group of ghosts had gathered on one of the buildings, accusing Reyna of being a murderer and a traitor. She hadn’t told the rest of the group what the spirits had meant by it, but she clearly was still shaken by their appearance.

“I don’t want to talk about San Juan,” she replied.

“You should,” Nico said. “The main thing about ghosts – most of them have lost their voices. In Asphodel, millions of them wander around aimlessly, trying to remember who they were. You know why they end up like that? Because in life they never took a stand one way or another. They never spoke out, so they were never heard. Your voice is your identity. If you don’t use it,” he said with a shrug, “you’re halfway to Asphodel already.”

“He’s right you know,” Sam supported the son of Hades.

“Before I met Steve,” he continued, “I was part of the Air Force. I served two tours in Afghanistan. That’s where I first got these,” he said, pointing to the bag that contained the EXO-7 Falcon. “One of the missions there was in Bakhmala. A war criminal was hiding out there, surrounded himself with soldiers armed with RPG’, which meant that we couldn’t use any choppers.

“So they send in Riley – my wingman – and me. Shouldn’t have been a problem, we’d done a lot of missions like this before, but then one of the RPG’s gets a direct hit on Riley. Nothing I could do. It was like I was up there just to watch." He turned his eyes back to Reyna.

“I left the Air Force shortly after that. Got a job at the Department of Veterans Affairs, tried to help people suffering from PTSD.” He gathered his thoughts again before continuing. “What I learned there is that talking about your problems can help more than you realize. You get a different perspective on your issues, which can help you in figuring out what to do with them.”

Coach Hedge cleared his throat. “This is getting too psychological for me. I’m going to write some letters.” He took his notepad and headed into the woods. The last day or so, he’d been writing a lot. The coach wouldn’t share details, but he hinted that he was calling in some favors to help with the quest.

After a short silence, Reyna picked up a creme pie and started talking. “The ghosts in San Juan…they were my ancestors.”

“The Ramírez-Arellano family goes back a long way,” Reyna continued. “I don’t know the whole story. My ancestors lived in Spain when it was a Roman province. My great-great-something-something-grandfather was a conquistador. He came over to Puerto Rico with Ponce de León.”

“One of the ghosts on the balcony was wearing conquistador armor,” Nico recalled.

“That’s him.”

“So… is your whole family descended from Bellona? I thought you and Hylla were her daughters, not legacies.”

Reyna quickly hid the fear that she felt at the mention of her sister.

“We are her daughters,” Reyna said. “We’re the first actual children of Bellona in the Ramírez-Arellano family. And Bellona has always favored our clan. Millennia ago, she decreed that we would play pivotal roles in many battles.”

“Which is what you’re doing now,” Sam reminded her.

Reyna brushed crumbs from her chin. “Perhaps. Some of my ancestors have been heroes. Some have been villains. You saw the ghost with the gunshot wounds in the chest?”

Nico nodded. “A pirate?”

“The most famous in Puerto Rican history. He was known as the Pirate Cofresí, but his family name was Ramírez de Arellano. Our house, the family villa, was built with money from the treasure that he buried.”

“And the other ghosts?” Sam asked.

Reyna took another bite of creme pie. “The guy in the U.S. Navy uniform… he’s my great-great-uncle from World War II, the first Latino submarine commander. You get the idea. A lot of warriors. Bellona was our patron goddess for generations.”

“But she never had demigod children in your family – until you,” Nico said.

“The goddess… she fell in love with my father, Julian. He was a soldier in Iraq. He was=” Reyna’s voice broke. She tossed aside the plastic bouquet of flowers she was still holding. “I can’t do this. I can’t talk about him.”

They were silent for a while before Nico started talking. “My dad gave me a present once,” he said. “It was a zombie.”

Reyna stared at him. “What?”

“His name is Jules-Albert. He’s French.”

“Your dad gave you a French zombie as a present?” Sam asked bemused.

Yeah… Hades isn’t the greatest dad, but occasionally he has these want-to-know-my-son moments. I guess he thought the zombie was a peace offering. He said Jules-Albert could be my chauffeur.”

Sam let out a laugh, and the corner of Reyna’s mouth twitched.

“A French zombie chauffeur,” She said, clearly amused by the idea.

“Hades had this idea that I should, you know, try to act like a modern teenager. Make friends. Get to know the twenty-first century. He vaguely understood that mortal parents drive their kids around a lot. He couldn’t do that. So his solution was a zombie.”

“To take you to the mall,” Reyna said. “Or the drive-through at In-N-Out Burger.”

“I suppose,” Nico replied while grabbing another creme pie. “Because nothing helps you make friends faster than a rotting corpse with a French accent.”

Reyna laughed. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t make fun.”

“It’s okay. Point is… I don’t like talking about my dad either. But sometimes,” he said, looking her in the eyes, “you have to.”

Reyna’s expression turned serious. “I never knew my father in his better days. Hylla said he used to be gentler when she was very small, before I was born. He was a good soldier – fearless, disciplined, cool under fire. He was handsome. He could be very charming. Bellona blessed him, as she had with so many of my ancestors, but that wasn’t enough for my dad. He wanted her for his wife.”

Over in the woods, Coach Hedge muttered to himself as he wrote. Three paper airplanes were already spiraling upward in the breeze.

“My father dedicated himself completely to Bellona,” Reyna continued. “It’s one thing to respect the power of war. It’s another thing to fall in love with it. I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to win Bellona’s heart. My sister was born just before he went to Iraq for his last tour of duty. He was honorably discharged, came home a hero. If… if he’d been able to adjust to civilian life, everything might have been all right.”

“But he couldn’t,” Nico guessed.

Reyna shook her head. “Shortly after he got back, he had one last encounter with the goddess… that’s the, um, reason I was born. Bellona gave him a glimpse of the future. She explained why our family was so important to her. She said the legacy of Rome would never fail as long as one of our bloodline remained, fighting to defend our homeland. Those words… I think she meant them to be reassuring, but my father became fixated on them.”

“War can be a hard thing to get over,” Sam said, thinking of some of the people he’d helped.

Despite the heat, Reyna drew her cloak around her. “Part of the problem was post-traumatic stress. He couldn’t stop thinking about the war. And then there was the constant pain – a roadside bomb had left shrapnel in his shoulder and chest. But it was more than that. Over the years, as I was growing up, he… he changed.”

Neither Sam nor Nico responded while they waited for her to continue, not wanting to interrupt her when she had finally opened up.

“He became paranoid,” Reyna said. “He thought Bellona’s words were a warning that our bloodline would be exterminated and the legacy of Rome would fail. He saw enemies everywhere. He collected weapons. He turned our house into a fortress. At night, he would lock Hylla and me in our rooms. If we sneaked out, he would yell at us and throw furniture and… well, he terrified us. At times, he even thought we were the enemies. He became convinced we were spying on him, trying to undermine him. Then the ghosts started appearing. I guess they’d always been there, but they picked up on my father’s agitation and began to manifest. They whispered to him, feeding his suspicions. Finally one day… I can’t tell you for sure when, I realized he had ceased to be my father. He had become one of the ghosts.”

“A mania,” told her. “I’ve seen it before. A human withers away until he’s not human anymore. Only his worst qualities remain. His insanity…”

It was clear from Reyna’s expression that his explanation wasn’t helping. “Whatever he was,” Reyna said, “he became impossible to live with. Hylla and I escaped the house as often as we could, but eventually, we’d come back and face his rage. We didn’t know what else to do. He was our only family. The last time we returned, he- he was so angry he was literally glowing. He couldn’t physically touch things anymore, but he could move them… like a poltergeist, I guess. He tore up the floor tiles. He ripped open the sofa. Finally, he tossed a chair and it hit Hylla. She collapsed. She was only knocked unconscious, but I thought she was dead. She’d spent so many years protecting me… I just lost it. I grabbed the nearest weapon I could find – a family heirloom, the Pirate Confresí’s saber. I-I didn’t know it was Imperial gold. I ran at my father’s spirit and…”

“You vaporized him,” Nico guessed.

Reyna’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I killed my own father.”

“No. Reyna, no. That wasn’t him. That was a ghost. Even worse: a mania. You were protecting your sister.”

She twisted the silver ring on her finger. “You don’t understand. Patricide is the worst crime a Roman can commit. It’s unforgivable.”

“You didn’t kill your father. The man was already dead,” Nico insisted. “You dispelled a ghost.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Reyna sobbed. “If word of this got out at Camp Jupiter-”

“You’d be executed,” said a new voice.

At the edge of the woods stood a Roman legionnaire in full armor, holding a pilum. A mop of brown hair hung in his eyes. His nose had obviously been broken at least once, which made his smile look even more sinister. “Thank you for your confession, _former_ Praetor. You’ve made my job much easier.”

Coach Hedge chose that moment to burst into the clearing, waving a paper airplane and yelling, “Good news, everyone!”

He froze when he saw the Roman. “Oh… never mind.” He quickly crumpled the airplane and ate it.

The group got to their feet. Aurum and Argentum ran to Reyna’s side and growled at the intruder.

“Bryce Lawrence,” Reyna said. “Octavian’s newest attack dog.”

The Roman inclined his head. He had cruel, moss-colored eyes.

“The augur has many attack dogs,” Bryce said. “I’m just the lucky one who found you. Your _Graecus_ friend here” – he pointed his chin at Nico – “he was easy to track. He stinks of the Underworld.”

Nico unsheathed his sword. “You know the Underworld? Would you like me to arrange a visit?”

Sam interrupted the confrontation before a fight broke out. “Hey, guys, let’s all settle down. I’m sure there’s a solution here where _you_ shut up, and _they_ don’t skewer you,” he said, pointing first at Bryce, and then at his companions.

Bryce laughed. His front teeth were two different shades of yellow. “Oh yes. The mortal,” He said in disgust, “I was told you would be here. He turned to Reyna, “Have you _truly_ sunken so low as to seek _their_ help for your miserable little quest?

“As for you.” He turned to Nico now. “Do you think you can frighten me? I’m a descendant of Orcus, the god of broken vows and eternal punishment. I’ve heard the screams in the Fields of Punishment firsthand. They’re music to my ears. Soon, I’ll be adding one more damned soul to the chorus.”

He turned back to Reyna with a grin. “Patricide, eh? Octavian will love this news. You are under arrest for multiple violations of Roman law.”

While Bryce talked, Sam slowly moved to the other side of the camp, where he’d left his duffel bag with equipment.

“You _being_ here is against Roman law,” Reyna said. “Romans don’t quest alone. A mission has to be led by someone of centurion rank or higher. You’re in _probatio_ , and even giving you that rank was a mistake. You have no right to arrest me.”

Bryce shrugged. “In times of war, some rules have to be flexible. But don’t worry. Once I bring you in for trial, I’ll be rewarded with full membership in the legion. I imagine I’ll be promoted to centurion too. Doubtless there will be vacancies after the coming battle. Some officers won’t survive, especially if their loyalties aren’t in the right place.”

Coach Hedge hefted his bat. “I don’t know the proper Roman etiquette, but can I bash this kid now?”

“A faun,” Bryce said. “Interesting. I heard the Greeks actually trusted their goat men.”

Hedge bleated. “I’m a satyr. And you can trust I’m going to put this bat upside your head, you little punk.” The coach advanced, but as soon as his foot touched the cairn, the stones rumbled like they were coming to a boil. Out of the gravesite, skeletal warriors erupted in the tattered remains of British redcoat uniforms.

Hedge scrambled away, but the first two skeletons grabbed his arms and lifted him off the ground. The coach dropped his bat and kicked his hooves. “Lemme go, ya stupid boneheads!” he bellowed.

Sam quickly grabbed his Steyr SPP’s from his bag in the commotion. The group watched as more and more soldiers erupted from the graves, rising so quickly that they barely had time to react before they were surrounded.

“I forgot to mention,” Bryce said, “I’m actually not alone on this quest. As you can see, I have backup. These redcoats promised quarter to the colonials. Then they butchered them. Personally, I like a good massacre, but because they broke their oaths, their spirits were damned, and they are perpetually under the power of Orcus. Which means they are also under _my_ control.” He pointed to Reyna. “Seize the girl.”

The soldiers surged forward. Aurum and Argentum took down the first few, but they were quickly wrestled to the ground, skeletal hands clamped over their muzzles. The redcoats grabbed Reyna’s arms. For undead creatures, they were surprisingly quick.

Nico slashed at one of the soldiers, but his sword went right through them, leaving the skeletons unharmed.

“What’s wrong, son of Hades?” Bryce’s voice was filled with fake sympathy. “Losing your grip?” Nico tried to push his way through the skeletons, but there were too many. Sam used this distraction to get behind Bryce. It was as if the soldiers had forgotten that he was there.

“Nico, get out of here!” Reyna said. “Get to the statue and leave.”

“Yes, off you go!” Bryce agreed. “Of course, you realize that your next shadow-jump will be your last. You know you don’t have the strength to survive another. But by all means, take the Athena Parthenos.”

Sam looked at the boy to see what Bryce was talking about. He still held his sword, but his hands were dark and transparent like smoky glass. Even in the direct sunlight, he was dissolving from all the shadow-travel over the last days.

The son of Hades had told them about the consequences shadow-traveling could have. If he did it too much in a short time, he could become one with the shadows. They’d already seen an instance of this yesterday when he had walked straight through a tree.

“Stop this!” Nico said.

“Oh, I’m not doing a thing,” Bryce said. “But I am curious to see what will happen. If you take the statue, you’ll disappear with it forever, right into oblivion. If you don’t take it… well, I have orders to bring Reyna in alive to stand trial for treason. I have no orders to bring you in alive, or the faun.”

“Satyr!” the coach yelled. He kicked a skeleton in its bony crotch, which seemed to hurt Hedge more than the redcoat. “Ow! Stupid British dead guys!”

Bryce knelt down and lowered his javelin and poked the coach in the belly. “I wonder what this one’s pain tolerance would be. I’ve experimented on all kinds of animals. I even killed my own centurion once. I’ve never tried a faun… excuse me, a satyr. You reincarnate, don’t you? How much pain can you take before you turn into a patch of daisies?”

He suddenly felt something cold press to the back of his head.

The skeletons had been so preoccupied with the other members of their group, that they hadn’t been able to stop Sam from sneaking up behind their leader.

“Call them off,” Sam demanded. “I don’t know what’ll happen to these things without you, but unless you wanna find out, you’re gonna let them go! Now get up, and call them off.”

Bryce slowly rose from where he sat.

Suddenly, pain shot through Sam’s shoulder. He cried out and grabbed it, letting his gun fall to the ground. He felt blood flowing through his fingers. It wasn’t a lot, but it was all the distraction that Bryce needed to disarm him and get back in control of the situation.

“I should take your head for that, _mortal_.” He hissed in anger, now turning the javelin on Sam.

“Leave him alone,” Nico warned.

Bryce raised an eyebrow. “Or what? By all means, try something Underworld-y, Nico. I’d love to see it. I have a feeling anything major will make you fade out permanently. Go ahead.”

Reyna struggled. “Bryce, forget about them. If you want me as your prisoner, fine. I’ll go willingly and face Octavian’s stupid trial.”

“A fine offer.”Bryce turned his javelin, letting the tip hover a few inches from Reyna’s eyes. “You really don’t know what Octavian has planned, do you? He’s been busy pulling in favors, spending the legion’s money.”

Reyna clenched her fists. “Octavian has no right-”

“He has the right of _power_ ,” Bryce said. “You forfeited your authority when you ran off to the ancient lands. On August first, your Greek friends at Camp Half-Blood will find out what a powerful enemy Octavian is. I’ve seen the designs for his machines… Even I’m impressed.”

Reyna turned to look into Nico’s eyes. “Nico,” she said, “do what you need to do. I’ve got your back.”

Bryce chuckled, clearly enjoying himself. “Oh, Reyna. You’ve got his back? It’s going to be so fun dragging you before a tribunal, forcing you to confess that you killed your father. I hope they’ll execute you in the ancient way – sewn into a sack with a rabid dog, then thrown into a river. I’ve always wanted to see that. I can’t wait until your little secret comes out.”

Bryce flicked the point of his pilum across Reyna’s face, leaving a line of blood.

The air around them suddenly became freezing cold. The ground turned black in a circle that was spreading out from where Nico stood.

In one horrible cry, he unleashed a flood of pain and anger on everyone in the clearing. The people present experienced his journey through Tartarus, his capture by the giants, his days wasting away inside a bronze jar beneath Rome. They felt Nico’s anguish from his days on the Argo II, and his encounter with Cupid in the ruins of Salona.

They could hear his voice inside of their head, challenging Bryce.

_You want secrets? Here._

The redcoats disintegrated into ashes. The rocks of the cairn turned white with frost. Bryce Lawrence stumbled, clutching his head, both nostrils bleeding.

Nico marched toward him. He grabbed Bryce’s probatio tablet and ripped it off his neck.

“You aren’t worthy of this,” Nico growled.

The earth split under Bryce’s feet. He sank up to his waist. “Stop!” Bryce clawed at the dirt and the plastic bouquets, but his body kept sinking.

“You took an oath to the legion.” Nico’s breath steamed in the cold. “You broke its rules. You inflicted pain. You killed your own centurion.”

“I-I didn’t! I-”

“You should’ve died for your crimes,” Nico continued. “That was the punishment. Instead, you got exile. You should have stayed away. Your father Orcus may not approve of broken oaths. But my father Hades _really_ doesn’t approve of those who escape punishment.”

“Please!”

Nico ignored his cries. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice.

“You’re already dead,” Nico said. “You’re a ghost with no tongue, no memory. You won’t be sharing any secrets.”

“No!” Bryce’s body turned dark and smoky. He slipped into the earth, up to his chest. “No, I am Bryce Lawrence! I’m alive!”

“Who are you?” Nico asked.

The next sound from Bryce’s mouth was a chattering whisper. His face became indistinct. He could have been anyone – just another nameless spirit among millions.

“Begone,” Nico said.

The spirit dissipated. The earth closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really doubted about including the part where Sam threatened Bryce. On the one hand, he’s a kid. An evil, messed up, cruel, psychopathic, crazy kid, but still a kid. On the other hand, he basically had his friends at ‘gunpoint.’ I think it’s sort of comparable to Bahrain, for those of you who’ve seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I needed something for Sam to do because until now, he’s been little more than a spectator. I didn’t want to change the ending of it, however. It’s one of the best moments Nico has in my opinion. It really showcases how powerful – and scary – he can be when he actually wants to.
> 
> Puerto Rico wasn’t included in this chapter because Sam would intrude way too much for that part of the story. 
> 
> Because school is starting up again soon, my updates might become more sporadic. I’ll try to make sure to upload next week, but I can’t make any promises after that.
> 
> I don’t remember if the real reason for why Orion kills the Hunters of Artemis is ever explained, I’m rereading it while I’m writing it, but I thought this was a credible explanation, especially because the Hunters don’t know it themselves.
> 
> Lastly, I’d like to give my thanks to Zathara001. They’ve given me some great feedback about improving my story and characters. You should check out some of their stories.
> 
> Please leave a review to let me know what you thought. I’ve read somewhere that reviews are kept to one per chapter, even if the chapter is updated, so if that’s the case, you can send me a PM instead.


	18. Just An Angry Man In A Can

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> December 20th, 2020
> 
> Wow, it has been a long time. I know I said updates would become more sporadic, but even I didn’t think it would take me this long. I’m not extremely happy with how it turned out, but I’ve been having a bit of a block for this chapter, so I’m hoping that if I release it, I can get back into it easier.
> 
> I don't own any of this. Replies to anonymous reviews in bottom notes. I have also (started) reviewing my old chapters and tried to improve some of them.

They had just finished saving the ship from a giant storm caused by Percy's half-sister when a voice broke Annabeth out of her thoughts.

Kymopoleia was a relatively unknown goddess, who really just wanted some recognition and respect. Apparently, Gaea had promised her control over the oceans, which seemed like an enticing offer to her, until Jason pointed out that with humanity wiped out, she still wouldn't be feared like she wanted to. Apparently, the son of Jupiter was able to convince the goddess not to sink the Argo II after offering her her own action figure.

"So, now that we're no longer in danger of drowning, what's been troubling you?"

Annabeth turned from where she was sitting on her bed to see Tony standing in the doorway.

"What do you mean?" she asked him.

"Well, it was pretty obvious that Sparta affected you more than the average person. and since Snow White was able to remain pretty level-headed throughout that whole ordeal, I guess it wasn't just because of your demigodliness."

Annabeth let out an amused snort before answering. "I guess you're right, but I could say the same to you."

"True enough. Takes one to know one I guess." Tony took a moment to sit down on a chair before continuing.

"You remember what happened during the Battle of New York right? Loki invaded with an alien army, the Avengers assembled for the first time, and it ended when I flew that nuke through the wormhole." He continued after a nod from Annabeth. "Well, I guess you could say that all the trauma over the years finally caught up with me when I went through that thing.

"I guess I got some form of PTSD out of that whole ordeal. I didn't sleep, barely ate. For the first time since my parents died, I felt truly powerless. Sure there were other times where I was scared, or I didn't know what I could do, but I always had plans. I always had ways to deal with the problems that popped up. This was different.

"For the first time, I realized how vulnerable our little pale blue dot really is. The six of us were barely able to stop the invasion this time, and there were thousands more of the Chitauri in that part of space alone. And they weren't the only threat out there. As Fury put it, we were hopelessly outgunned.

"So I started tinkering. I wanted- needed to protect Pepper. And every time I found the counter to one threat, I'd think of another. I went from the Mark VIII to the Mark XLII in just over six months."

"What stopped it?"

Annabeth's question threw Tony off for a moment.

"It never did. Not really anyway," he answered her truthfully. "After what happened with Killian - the man behind the mandarin attacks – I realized I can't control everything. There are always going to be things that we're not prepared for. No matter how many suits I made, I still couldn't save Pepper. Sure she survived, but it made me realize that some things can't be helped.

"I still worry of course. Still want to protect her as much as I can. And the fear of the unknown threats that are out there remains, you know, the E.T.'s and Emperor Palpatine's out there. I'd like to think it doesn't control me anymore, but then this mess with Ultron happened. Guess I'm not completely passed it yet."

"Well that's encouraging." Tony laughed at the response.

"So what about you? What's got you so worked up?"

Annabeth was silent for a moment before steeling herself and telling him what happened over the last few weeks.

oo00OO00oo

Tony was left reeling when Annabeth finished talking. He was aware that she had some baggage that was weighing her down, but he hadn't expected anything like this.

Then again, who would have expected a couple of teenagers to have returned from a trip to hell and back for their summer vacation? He definitely understood the girl's reaction in Sparta now.

He felt a not-insignificant amount of anger towards the Olympians when he thought about what happened to her and Percy. Not to mention the other demigods on board the Argo II.

"How can you stand them?" He asked her angrily, breaking the silence that followed when the blonde had finished her story.

"Who," Annabeth looked up from from the floor.

"The gods. What right do they have to inflict all of this on you?" Thunder boomed in the distance, but he ignored it. "Zeus, Hera, your mom. What gives them the right to ask you to make these sacrifices for them? What have they done for you in return?" He stood up and started pacing around the room in an effort to contain his anger. "From what you told me, she didn't seem all that grateful when you last met her, even though you helped save all of the Olympians less than half a year earlier!"

Annabeth was staring at him with wide eyes now, not entirely sure what to say, and all the while hoping that the gods didn't reach their limit and decide to blast Tony out of the sky the next time he was in one of his suits.

"How many times have you saved their ass now? And for what? A nice pat on the back with a 'see you next year' from the god that asked you to do it?" Tony's shouting was drawing attention to Annabeth's bunk, but Tony didn't seem to notice. Steve was standing in the doorway, with Hazel right behind him.

"What are they going to say this time? Sorry, we won't do it again? From what you've told me, your mom is one of the reasons that you're having a civil war in the middle of all of this in the first place!"

Annabeth flinched when she heard a deafening crack of thunder very close to the ship, but Tony showed no sign of stopping. If the look Steve was giving her was any indication, he shared her worries.

"Stark, You're going to get us killed if you keep this going!"

"They're not going to shoot us out of the sky now Rogers. They're screwed without us. I want them to hear this."

"Well if you don't want to get a personal lightning bolt sent delivered to you when your out in the field next time, you should shut up," Rogers replied, moving further into the room so he stood in front of Stark.

"Well, wouldn't that be a good show of their character?" Tony retorted, which just caused another crack of thunder sounded through the room.

"Stark, you're angry, I get it. I don't like what I've heard about the last few years either, but right now, all you're putting you and everyone on this ship in danger." Steve let out a breath before continuing. "Let's finish this mission first. Afterwards, I'll gladly help you in putting them in their place. I'd love to give them a piece of my mind as well." He put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "We're a team, remember? We've got each other's backs."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got stuck on this chapter for months. Seriously, I had the first section in October, maybe even earlier. I just couldn’t find a way to get that first that part right. That was until I recently started reading The Will of the Empire, by CzarZelinsky, which is a Star Wars story about Luke becoming the heir to the Empire after Endor, set in the Legends universe. If you’re interested in a good Star Wars Original Trilogy Era fanfic, I really recommend it. When I read it, I finally realized what the best way to retell a story is: Not doing it. I kept trying to find a way for Annabeth to explain two books of content in a single chapter, but now I realized that it would just have been a bunch of filler, and I’d probably never be able to do it justice
> 
> That problem, in combination with uni starting again, has kept me from completing this chapter.  
> I was originally planning on including the storm in this chapter, but I couldn’t find a good way for the Avengers to contribute that much to it. If I included them in the ‘scene’ with Kymopoleia, but I don’t think there’s a way to do that without making it feel like they’re just pushed into the scene, and it would have been really weird not to include it since the storm stops as a result of that section.  
> By the way, have you guys heard about the Percy Jackson series that’s coming to Disney+? I really hope it’s going to be good because this franchise deserves a great adaptation, but I’m keeping my hopes up, because apparently Rick is a lot more involved than last time. It might be old news by this point, but I didn’t hear about it until about October, so I thought I might make some other people that don’t follow these things aware of it this way.
> 
> I’d like to say that I’ll update quicker in the future, but I’m hesitating on making any promises. I might be able to get something out by the end of Christmas break, but it’s not very likely, I have another break in February/March, but that’s only 1 week, so I really can’t say when the next part will be out. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review to let me know what you think.  
> Have a nice break, and I wish you all a more enjoyable 2021!


End file.
